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HISTORY 



Public School System 



CALIFORNIA. 



-y^' ^' JOHN SWETT. 



SAN FRANCISCO: 

A. L. BANCROFT AND COMPANY. 

1876. 



Entsred according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, 

By JOHN SWETT, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



A. L. BANCROFT A CO., 
PKINTEKS. 



PREFACE. 



This history contains an outline of school legislation, school 
reports, and educational conventions, from 1850 to 187G, and a 
statement of the leading facts connected Avith the organization 
of the school system of California. 

This Centennial year seems a fitting time to gather up the 
scattered and fragmentary records of the beginnings of our 
schools, and to trace the development of our system of public 
instruction during the first quarter of a century of our history 
as a State. 

I have undertaken the work, because I felt that it ought to be 
done, and no one else seemed ready to do it. I have endeav- 
ored to make it accurate and impartial. It is published on my 
own responsibility solely, and at my own expense. 

Only a limited number of copies has been printed ; it is not 

stereotyped, and the type is distributed. It is submitted to 

the pioneer teachers and school officers of California, with the 

hope that this record of the history they helped to make may 

not be wholly devoid of interest. 

J. S. 

San Feancisco, 

August, 187(3. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

PAGE. 

1. Foiindatiou 9 

2. School Legislation, 1849-50 12 

3. First Free School 13 

4. Pioneer Schools 13 

5. School Legislation, 1851 14 

Division of School Moneys 15 

6. Schools in San Francisco, 1852 16 

7. First State Report— Marvin 16 

8. Legislation, 1852 19 

9 . Second lieport — Marvin 20 

10. Legislation, 1853 21 

Division of School Moneys 22 

11. Third Eeport— Hubbs 22 

12. Legislation, 1854 22 

13. Fourth Eeport, 1854— Hubbs 23 

14. Legislation, 1855 23 

Secular Schools 23 

15. Fifth Report, 1855— Hubbs 24 

16. Sixth Report, 185B— Hubbs 24 

17. Seventh Report, 1857— Moulder 24 

State University 26 

18. Legislation, 1858 27 

19. Eighth Report, 1858-Moulder. 28 

20. Ninth Report, 1859— Moulder 29 

21. Legislation, 1860 29 

22. Tenth Report, 18G0— Moulder 30 

23. Legislation, 1861 31 

Division of School Moneys 31 

Speech of John Conness 32 

24. Eleventh Report, 1861— Moulder 3o 

25. Legislation, 1862 ^ 35 

State Normal School .' 36 

26. Twelfth Report, 1862— Moulder 36 

27. Legislation, 1863 36 

Teachers' Certificates 37 

School Fund 37 

28. Thirteenth Report, 1863— Swett 38 

State Tax 39 

29. Legislation, 1864 43 

State Tax 44 

30. First Biennial Report— Swett • 44 

Topics treated of 45 

31. Second Report— Swett 47 

Revised School Law 48 

Salaries 50 

Libraries 51 

Religions Exercises 51 

Examination of Teachers 53 

Progress 56 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

32. Legislation, 1869 58 

State University 58 

33. Third Report— Fitzgerald 58 

34. Legislation, 1870 59 

California School Law 59 

35. Fourth Keport— Fitzgerald 60 

Increase of State Tax 60 

Leading Topics 62 

Conclusion 63 

36. Legislation, 1872 63 

37. Filth Report— Bolander 63 

Compulsory Education 64 

38. Legislation, 1874 65 

1. Increase of State Tax 65 

2. Compulsory Education 65 

39. Sixth Report, 1875— Bolander 246 

Text Books 67 

Trained Teachers 67 

Normal Institutes 68 

40. Legislation, 1876 69 

State Series of Text Books 69 

41. List of State Superintendents 70 

SFECIAL HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO. 

1. First School Reports 71, 76 

2. Miscellaneous Historical Items 77 

1. Buildings 77 

2. Grading 77 

3. Salaries 77 

4. Certificates 77 

5. Annual Elections 78 

6. Examinations 78 

7. Secular Schools 78 

8. Politics and Schools , 78 

9. Music and Drawing 78 

10. Changes of Text Books 78 

11. Co-education 78 

12. Normal Schools 78 

13. Hobbies 78 

14. Merits and Defects 78 

15. Address of President Davis 78 

16. Veteran Teacliers 78 

17. Ten Years' Teaching 78 

3. List of City Superinttiidents 90 

4. List of Presidents of Boards 90 

5. List of Principals of Schools 91 

6. Statistical Table, Historical 94 

7. Special Statistics 95 



PART II. 
L CONVENTIONS AND INSTITUTES. 

1. First Convention, 1854 96 

2. Second Convention, 1856 97 

3. First Institute, 1861 97 

4. Second Institute, 1862 98 

5. Third Institute, 1863 99 

Circular 100 

State Tax 102 

Text Books 103 

" California Teacher " 103 

State Examinations 103 

Results 104 



CONTENTS. 7 

PAGE. 

6. Fourth Institute, 1865 104 

7. Fifth and Sixth, 1867-G8 105 

8. Seventh and Eighth, 1870-71 106 

9. State Association, 1875 106 



II. INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

1. Industrial Education — Carr 107 

2. Duties of the State to Public Schools— Swett 109 

3. Methods of Teaching— Minns 122 

4. Common Sense in Teaching--Swett 143 

5. Dedication Address — Starr King 148 

6. Moral Instruction— Minns ■ 153 

7. Physical Training— Swett 158 



III. STATE UNIVERSITY. 

1. Foundation 165 

2. First Regents 165 

3. First Faculty 166 

4. Regents, 1870 167 

5. Faculty, 1876 167 

7. Endowment 168 



IV. STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 

1. Foundation 169 

2. Teachers 169 

3. Numbers 170 



V. STATE BOARDS OF EDUCATION. 

1. First Board 170 

2. Other Boards 171 



VI. TEACHERS' CERTIFICATES AND BOARDS OF EXAMINATION. 

1. District Trustees 171 

2. First State Board 171 

3. Superintendent Swett's Report 172 

4. Revised Law 172 

5. Swett's Address 175 

6. Set of Questions, 1876 183 

■ 7. List of Holders of Life Diplomas 191 

8. List of Holders of State Educational Diplomas 195 

9. Prominent Teachers 197 

10. State Educational Society 200 

11. State Series of Text-Books 203 

12. Education of Colored Children 205 

13. Course of Study 206 

14. The California Teacher 210 

15. Historical Statistical Tables 2l5 

1. Expenditures 215 

2. School Taxation 216 

3. School Statistics 217 

16. Historical List of County Superintendents 218 



CONTENTS. 



PART III. 
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

PAGE. 

I. School Supervision 223 

I. State Superintendent 223 

II. State Board of Education 223 

III. State Board of Examination 223 

IV. County Superintendents 224 

V. City Superintendents 224 

VI. City Boards . 224 

VII. School Trustees. 224 

VIII. County Boards of Examination 224 

IX. University Kegents 225 

X. Normal School Trustees. '. 225 

II. School Revenue 227 

I. State School Fund 227 

n. State Tax 227 

III. County Tax 227 

IT. City Tax 227 

V. District Tax ■ 227 

III. General Provisions 228 

1. Schools 228 

2. Pupils 229 

3. Teachers 229 

4. District Libraries 231 

IV. Classification of Schools 231 

I. State University 231 

II. State Normal School 232 

III. High Schools 232 

V. Summary of Statistics, 1875 233 

1 . Census Children 233 

2 Classification 233 

3. Schools and Teachers 233 

4. Holders of Certificates 233 

5. Salaries 233 

6. Financial 234 

7. Valuation 234 

VI. School Statistics by Counties, 1875 235 

VII. Resume of the Condition of the Schools 236 

1. Buildings 236 

2. Length of School 236 

3. Teachers 236 

4. Instruction 236 

5. Libraries 236 

6. Secular Instruction 236 

7. Defects 237 

8. Expenses 237 

9. What we Need 237 



THE 



Public School System of California. 



PART I. 



I. FOUNDATION. 

The foundation of the public school system of California was 
laid in the Constitutional Convention held in Monterey, Sep- 
tember, 1849. 

The Select Committee on the State Constitution reported, 
in Committee of the Whole, in favor of appropriating the five 
hundred thousand acres of land granted by Congress to new 
States for the purpose of internal improvements, to constitute 
a perpetual School Fund, with a proviso, however, that the 
Legislature might appropriate the revenue so derived to other 
purposes if the exigencies of the State required it. An ani- 
mated debate occurred on this proviso, in which Mr. Sherwood 
of Sacramento, and Mr. Jones of San Joaquin, were the prin- 
cipal speakers in favor of it; and Mr. Semple of Sonoma, and 
Mr. McCarver, opposed to it. The ijroviso was stricken out by 
the close vote of eighteen ayes to seventeen noes, thus secur- 
ing an inviolable fund for school purposes. In the progress of 
the debate Mr. Semple spoke as follows : 

"This is a subject upon which I have thought probably more 
than upon any other subject that has ever engrossed my attention. 
I regard it as a subject of peculiar importance here in California, 
from our location and the circumstances uu Jer which we are placed, 
the immense value of our lands, and the extent and wealth of the 
country. I think that here, above all places in the Union, we 
1 



10 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

should have, and we possess the resources to have, a well-regulated 
system of education. 

'• It is the duty of members of this House to unite together and 
secure that reputation, character and ability in our public teachers 
which can only be obtained by a liberal and permanent fund. It is 
the basis of a well-regulated school system that it shall be uniform 
throughout the State; that any surplus funds collected in one dis- 
trict shall not be ajipropriated in that district, but that the aggre- 
gate fund from all the districts shall be appropriated strictly to 
school purposes, and distributed equally throughout the State. 

" We should therefore carefully provide that this fund shall be 
used for no other jDurpose." 

A section providing that a school should be kept in each dis- 
trict at least tliree months in each year, in order to secure any 
share of the State Fund, was adopted; an amendment by Mr. 
Hastings, to insert "six "months instead of "three," having 
been rejected, 

SIXTEENTH AND THIRTY- SIXTH SECTIONS. 

Mr. Semple, of Sonoma, whose opinions on school matters 
seem to have been remarkably clear and correct, moved, as a 
substitute for a rejected section relating to collecting and dis- 
bursing the proceeds of fines for breach of penal laws, that all 
funds collected from any source, including, of course, the pro- 
ceeds from the sales of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections 
of township school lands, be ixiid into a common fund, to he 
a2'>port'iOiied according to the nuruher of cluldren. 

William M. Gwin and Henry W.Halleck, both of San Fran- 
cisco, spoke against the measure; and Mr. Semple defended it 
in an able speech. It Avas rejected, however, and the way was 
left open for a great deal of cumbersome legislation in vain 
attempts to form township school funds. Finally, after fifty 
thousand acres had been sold by various townships, the pro- 
ceeds of which have never been heard of since, in 1861 a law 
was passed consolidating the proceeds into one common State 
School Fund, as proposed by Mr. Semple in IS'lO. 

THE TEST VOTE. 

When Article IX, on education, came up for final adoption 
in the Convention, there was a lengthy debate on the policy of 
concurring with the action in Committee of the Whole in strik- 
ing out the proviso in section second before mentioned. The 



AND SCHOOL KEPORTS. 11 

opinion preyailed in the Convention that this grant would be of 
immense value; that the lands would be located in mineral 
regions, and sold for fabulous sums; that the fund derived would 
be the most munificent in the Avorld; and the argument Avas 
used in favor of the proviso, that the fund would be more than 
sufficient to educate the children, and would prove a source of 
corruption and speculation. Hence the question was made an 
important one, which brought out the full strength of the friends 
of free schools. 

W. J^I. Stewart and Messrs. Sherwood and Vermeule, spoke 
in favor ^ of retaining the proviso, and Messrs. Gwin, Halleck, 
Botts, Hoppe, Semple, and McDougal, in favor of striking it out. 

After various amendments offered and rejected, the proviso 
was stricken out by the following vote: 

Ayes.- — Messrs. Aram, Botts, Brown, Covarrubias, Gwin, 
Hanks, Hill, Hoppe, Halleck, Hastings, Hollingsworth, Larkin, 
Lippitt, Lippincott, McCarver, McDougal, Ord, Price, Ileid, 
Sutter, Stearns, Sansevaine, Tefft, Yermeule, Walker, and Pres- 
ident Semple — 26. 

Noes. — Messrs. Dimmick, Dominguez, Foster, Gilbert, Hob- 
son, Norton, Pico, Sherwood and AN'^ozencraft — 10. 

And so ivas laid the foundation of our School Fund and School 
System. 

CONSTITOTIONAL PKO VISIONS. 

Article IX of the Constitution, as adopted, was as follows: 

" Article IX. — Education. 

" Section 1. The Legislature shall provide for the election by 
the people of a Superiutendent of Public lustruction, who shall 
hold his office for three years, and whose duties shall be prescribed 
by law, and who shall receive such compensation as the Legisla- 
ture may direct.* 

" Sec. 2. The Legislature shall encourage by all suitable means 
the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral and agricultural im- 
provement. The proceeds of all land that may be granted by the 
United States to this State for the support of schools which may be 
sold or disposed of, and the five hundred thousand acres of land 
granted to the new States, under an act of Congress distributing 
the proceeds of the public lands among the several States of the 
Union, approved a. d. 1841, such per cent, as may be granted by 
Congress on the sale of lauds in this State shall be and remain a 

* Amended in 1862 so as to provide for the election of State Superintendent at 
the Special Judicial Election, for a term of four years. 



12 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

perpetual fund, the interest of wliicli, together with all the rents of 
the unsold lands, and such other means as the Legislature may 
provide, shall be inviolahly appropriated to the support of common 
schools throughout the State. 

" Sec. 3. Tlie Legislature shall provide for a system of common 
schools, by which a school shall be kept up and supported in each 
district at least three months in every year; and any district neg- 
lecting to keep and support such a school, may be de2:)rived of its 
proportion of the interest of the public fund during such neglect. 

" Sec. 4. The Legislature shall take measures for the protection, 
improvement, or other disposition of such lands as have been or may 
hereafter be reserved or granted by the United States, or any person 
or persons, to the State, for the use of a university; and the funds 
accruing from the rents or sale of such lands, or from #any other 
source, for the purpose aforesaid, shall be and remain a permanent 
fund, the interest of which shall be applied to the support of said 
university, with such branches as the ])ub]ic convenience may de- 
mand, for the promotion of literature, the arts and sciences, as may 
be authorized by the terms of such grant. And it shall be the duty 
of the Legislature, as soon as may be, to provide efl'ectual means for 
the imjDrovement and permanent security of the funds of said uni- 
versity." 

2. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1849-50. 

Near the close of the first session of the Legislature, 1849-50, 
held in the city of San Jose, Mr. Corej-, from the Committee ou 
Education, reported that the taxes laid on the people for State, 
county, and municipal purposes, were so heavy the committee did 
not consider it advisable to report a bill to tax the people still 
further for the support of public. schools, and, accordingly, the 
school bill, of which no record remains, was indefinitely post- 
poned. But while the school bill, thus defeated, has been for- 
gotten, the reason advanced by Mr. Corey has been the stand- 
ing argument urged against every school bill which has con- 
tained any provision for maintaining by taxation a system of 
public schools. 

3. THE FIRST FREE PUBLIC SCHOOL. 

A solid foundation for a school system was laid by the framers 
of the State Constitution, but San Francisco was the first place 
in the State to organize, independent of State law, b}' her Com- 
mon Council, a/ree public school. 

The Ayuntamiento, or City Council, adopted, April 8, 1850, 
the following ordinance, drawn by H. C. Murraj^, which was the 
first i)nl)lic school orcUucaice of any icind 2^f(SS€d in Cali/onna, and 
consequently made the school taught by Mr. Pelton the first 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 13 

free public scliodl in the State. The ordinance was crude, it is 
true, but it was the germ of all succeeding city ordinances. 
The following is a copy of the ordinance: 

" 1st. Be it ordained by the Common Council of San Francisco, That 
from and after the passage of this act, it shall be the duty of J. C. 
Pelton, who has been employed by the Council as a public teacher, 
to open a school in the Baptist Chapel. 

" 2d. Said school shall be opened from half-past eipfht o'clock 
A. M. to twelve o'clock m., and from two o'clock p. m. until five o'clock 
p. M. , and shall continue open from Monday until Friday at five 
o'clock p. M. 

" 3d. The number of scholars shall not exceed the number of one 
hundred; and no scholar shall be admitted under the age of four or 
over the age of sixteen. 

"4th. All persons desirous of having their children instructed in 
said school shall first obtain an order from the Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Education, and all children obtaining said order shall be 
instructed in said school free of charge. 

" 5th. It shall be the duty of said Pelton to report to the Council 
on the first of each and every month the number of scholars and the 
progress of said school. 

"H. C. Murray. 

"F. TiLFORD." 

4. THE PIONEER SCHOOLS. 

On October 11, 1847, a committee of the Town Council 
contracted for the erection of a small schoolhouse of one room, 
on the southwest corner of the Plaza, at the corner of Clay 
Street and Brenliam Place. 

On February 23, 1848, a small number of voters assembled 
and elected a Board of School Trustees, consisting of Dr. Town- 
send, Dr. Fourgeaud, C. L. Eoss, Wm. H. Davis and J. Serine. 
This board elected Thomas DougUiss as teacher, at a salary of 
one thousand dollars a year, and the school opened on the 3d 
of April, 1848, with 6 pupils. This was in fact a tuition school 
nnder public auspices, it being free only to indigent pupils. 
The Town Council agreed to make up any deficiency in the 
salary of the teacher, to the extent of four hundred dollars. The 
estimated population of the town, April 1, 1848, was one 
thousand, with 60 children of school age. In May the school 
" numbered 37 pupils. 

On May 13, 1848, a new election of Trustees was ordered, 
and after a spirited contest the old board was re-elected. Soon 
after gold was discoveied, the school dwindled to 8 pupils, and 
Schoolmaster Douglass closed his doors and started for the 
mines. 



14 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

Prior to tlie opening of tins 9'?/(7.s/' public school, Mr. Marston, 
a Mormon, opened a private school, April, 1847, and sqon had 
20 pupils in attendance. Schoolmaster Marston also became a 
miner when the stampede for the "diggings" took place. 

In April, 1849, Rev. Albert Williams opened a private school 
of about 25 pupils, and continued it until the September fol- 
lowing. 

On the 11th of October, 1849, John C. Pelton and wife arrived 
from Boston, Avith school furniture, boohs, etc., for the purpose 
of establishing a school on the New England plan. He opened 
school December, 1849, Avith three pupils. This school was to 
be supported by voluntary contributions, but was free to indi- 
gent children. This school was made a free jyuhlic school soon 
after. 

The school so established soon numbered 150 pupils, and in 
addition to Mr. Pelton and his wife, two assistants had to be 
employed. At one time the school numbered 300 pupils. The 
salary of Mr. and Mrs. Pelton was $500 a month. 

This school was continued until September 25, 1851, when it 
was suspended by the adoption of a new school ordinance, 
under which T. J. Nevins became Superintendent, new teachers 
were elected, and Mr. Pelton temporarily retired from school. 

5. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1850-1851. 

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Mr 
Heydenfelt, early in the second session of the Legislature, at 
San Jose, 1850-51, reported a bill "Concerning common 
schools," which dragged slowly along, was indefinitely post- 
poned in the Assembly, submitted to a Committee of Conference, 
and finally passed on the very last day of the session. May 1, 
1851. 

The original bill was mainly drawn by Hon. George B. 
Tingley, a member of the Legislature. John G. Marvin, Super- 
intendent of Public Listruction, and John C. Pelton, teacher of 
the public school in San Francisco, under a local school ordi- 
nance, assisted in preparing and perfecting the bill, and in 
securing its passage. David C. Broderick, then a member of 
the Legislature, was an active supporter of the bill. 

THE FIRST SCHOOL LAW. 

The school law of 1851 was cumbereome and imperfect in many 
of its provisions. It provided for the survey and sale of school 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 15 

lands in so impracticable a manner that no lands were ever sold 
uudeij its operation. The Governor was to order a survey; the 
surveyor was to lay off the land in lots not exceeding eighty 
acres, nor less than forty, and to furnish the State Superintend- 
ent with a schedule of the same; the lands were to be sold at 
auction, on an order from the Court of Sessions — the purchaser 
to pay one third down, and ten per cent, per annum interest on 
the remainder; the County Treasurer to give a certificate of 
payment, and report to the State Superintendent; the State 
Superintendent to direct the District Attorney to make out a 
deed; the County Recorder to report annually to the State 
Superintendent. 

It provided for the apportionment of the interest of the State 
School Fund to the counties, on the basis of the number of 
children between seven and eighteen years of age; but the 
County Treasurers were to apportion to districts according to 
the number actually attending school; no district was to receive 
its share of State money unless school was maintained three 
months, and nnless it raised a sum equal to at least one half its 
share of the State Fund. It defined the duties of the Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction; provided for a "Superintending 
School Committee " of three, elected annually, with power to 
examine and appoint teachers, disburse the School Fund, build 
schoolhouses, and report annually to the State Superintendent. 
It divided schools into primary, intermediate and grammar, 
specifying the studies in each, and provided for the establish- 
ment of high schools. 

DI\^SION OF THE SCHOOL MONEYS. 

It also provided for the distribution of the School Fund 
among religious and sectarian schools, in the following sections : 

" Sec. 10. If a school be formed by the enterprise of a rehgious 
society, in which all the educational branches of the district schools 
shall be taught, and which, from its private and public examination, 
the committee will it to be well conducted, such school shall be 
allowed a compensation from the Public School Fund in proportion 
to the nvimber of* its pupils, in the same manner as provided for 
district schools by this act. 

" Sec 11. Schools established under charitable anspioes, orphan 
asylums, schools for blind, almshouse schools, etc., such as shall be 
subject to the general supervision of laws on education, but under 
the immediate management of their respective trustees, managers, 
or directors; and said schools shall participate in the apportionment 
of the school moneys in the same manner as other common schools." 



16 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

6. SCHOOLS IN SAN FRANCISCO, 1851-52. 

The first school ordinance passed under the State school laAV 
of 1851 was that of San Francisco, adopted in September, 1851, 
■which made provision for a City Board of Education, composed 
of seven members, and for a City Superintendent, and appro- 
jDriated $35,000 for the support of schools. Thomas J. Nevins, 
who mainly prepared the ordinance, was elected Superintendent 
of Schools, and proceeded to organize the department. The 
first schools organized under this ordinance were the Happy 
Yalley School, of which Mr. James Denman was elected the first 
teacher, and the Powell Street School, of which Mr. Joel Tracy 
was appointed teacher. 

Both schools opened on the 17th of December, 1851. 

The Washington Grammar School opened December 22, Mr. 
r. E. Jones, Principal. 

During 1852 the following new schools were organized: Piin- 
con School, January 28, Silas Weston, Principal; Spring Valley 
Grammar, February 9, Asa "W. Cole, Principal; Union Gram- 
mar, June, Ahira Holmes, Principal; Mission Grammar, May, 
Alfred Eix, Principal. 

The average daily attendance in all the schools for 1852 was 
445; in 1853, 703 pupils. 

Among the teachers elected in 1853 were Ellis H. Holmes, 
Principal of the AVashington School, March 1; John Swett, 
Principal Rincon School, December 4; Joseph C. Morrill, 
Principal Spring Yalley School, October 1. 

The salary of Principals of Grammar Schools in 1853 was 
$1500 a year. 

7. FIRST STATE SCHOOL REPORT, 1851. 

John G. Marvin, the first Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, made his first annual report to the third Legislature on the 
5th of January, 1852. He recommended that a carefully pre- 
pared school law should be passed, as that of the previous year 
was meagi-e in its provisions; that an appropriation of $50,000 
should be immediately made, and that next year a State school 
tax of five cents on a hundred dollars should be levied until 
some revenue could be derived from the State School Fund; that 
the office of County Superintendent be created; that provision 



AND SCHOOL KEPORTS. 17 

be made for school libraries; and that the proceeds of the sales 
of tule lands be applied to the School Fnnd. He estimated the 
total amount of State school land, inchuling the 16th and 36th 
sections, and the 500,000 acre grant, to be 6,380,320 acres, which 
would yield a prospective School Fund of $7,975,400, and says 
of this estimate: " This would be trul}^ a magnilicent bequest, 
and one worthy of the El Dorado State." 

In an appendix to his report, Mr. Marvin gave extracts from 
letters of inquiry addressed by him to various county officers 
and to postmasters. A few extracts from these Avill show the 
educational condition of the State at that time: Butte County 
had 50 children, but no school; Calaveras County, 100 children, 
and no school; Colusa, 75 children, with some prospect of a 
school next 3'ear; El Dorado County, 100 children, but no 
school; Contra Costa County had some 400 children. Postmas- 
ter Coffin, of Martinez, wrote: "There are nearly 150 here. 
There is but just the breath of life existing in the apolog}' for a 
school in the town. I presume it will be defunct ere one month 
passes away." Marin County had 60 children, and a mission 
school at San Kafael; Mariposa County, 100 children, "no 
school organized;" Mendocino County, 70 children, and a school 
of 20 pupils on Russian Eiver; Monterey County, 500 children 
— tvvo schools of 40 pupils each in the city — 179 at San Juan, 
and no school; " morality and society in a desperate condition ;" 
Napa County had 100 children, and three schools in the county, 
one of which was at Napa City, and numbered 25 scholars; Ne- 
vada County had 250, and four schools, two of which were at 
Nevada City, one at Grass Valley, and one at Eough and Eeady ; 
Placer County had 100 children, and one small school at Auburn; 
San Joaquin County had 250 children, and two schools, both 
at Stockton. Mr. Pogers, the teacher of a private school at 
Sacramento, reported that there were 400 children in that county, 
and no schools except two primary and one academy, a high 
school in the city of Sacramento, all private. He says: "This 
city has never spent a cent for elementary instruction. My 
sympathies are with the public free schools, but in their ab- 
sence, I started a private school." 

Santa Cruz County had 200 children, and two schools, both 
in the town, numbering 65 scholars. 

Santa Clara County had 300 children. The Young Ladies' 
Seminary, at San Jose, in charge of the Sisters of Charity, had 



18 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

90 pupils; and the Sau Jose Academy, Eevereiid E. Bannister, 
Principal, had 60 j^upils. Through the exertions of Hon. 
George B. Tingley, a subscription of $5000 was raised for the 
benefit of this academy. There were two primary schools at 
Santa Clara, with 64 scholars, and two other schools in the town- 
ship, numbering 35 scholars. 

Santa Barbara County had 400 children, and one public school 
in the town, under supervision of the Common Council, who 
paid the two teachers together seventy dollars per month. There 
was also a small school at Santa Inez. 

SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOLS. 

Concerning San Francisco, it is reported: "In May last, the 
Common Council, under authority of the charter, authorized 
the raising of $35,000 as a School Fund for the present year. 
In September, 1851, the same body passed the present excel- 
lent school ordinance, and appointed Aldermen Ross, Atwell, 
John Wilson and Henry E. Lincoln, to form the Board of Edu- 
cation. These gentlemen chose T. J. Nevins Superintendent." 

Three public schools were organized at that time — Happy 
Yalley School, No. 1, 163 scholars, James Denman, Principal; 
District No. 2, Dupont Street School, 150 pupils, Mr. Jones, 
Principal; Powell Street School, No. 3, 60 pupils, Joel Trdcy, 
Principal. 

Among the private schools, the principal Avere as follows: 
San Francisco Academy, Bev. F. E. Prevaux, 31 pupils; Epis- 
copal Parish School of Grace Church, 40 scholars. Dr. Ver 
Mehr; Wesley an Chapel Select School, 33 scholars, Mr. 
Osborne, Instructor; St. Patrick's School, 150 children. Father 
McGinnis, Principal; Church of St. Francis School, 150 pupils, 
Father Langlois, Principal. 

Sonoma County had 5 small schools, and 250 children; Solano 
County 200 children and one school, at Benicia, half public and 
half private; Trinity County 125 childi-en, and one school of 
50 pupils, at Uniontown; Tuolumne County 150 children, and 
no school; Yolo County 75 children, and no school; Yuba 
County had 150 children, and one school in Marysville, of 30 
scholars, taught by Tyler Thatcher and his wife. 

From these rough materials Mr. Marvin estimated the num- 
ber of children in the State between 4 and 18 years of age to 
be about 6000. There was then no organized State school sys- 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 19 

tem, and most of the schools mentioned in the preceding items 
were private schools supported bj tuition. 

8. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1852. 

At the third session of the Legislature, held in Yallejo and 
Sacramento, 1852, Hon. Frank Soule, Chairman of the Senate 
Committee on Education, made an able report in favor of com- 
mon schools, and introduced a revised school law much more 
complete than the law of 1851. 

Hon. Paul K. Hubbs, of the Senate, afterwards Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction, State Superintendent Marvin and 
Mr. Pelton, assisted Mr. Soule in framing the bill. 

A select committee of the Assembly on the Senate bill (Mr. 
Boggs, Chairman) reported strongly against many features of 
the bill; thought that parents could take care of their own 
children; that the State and the counties were in debt; that taxa- 
tion ought not to be increased — the standing argument of Mr. 
Corey — and therefore recommended that the bill be postponed 
one year, and yet had the unblushing impudence to wind up 
their report by "declaring themselves faithful friends of com- 
mon schools and loyal lovers of children!" Finally a commit- 
tee of conference was appointed, on which appear the names of 
J. M. Estell, Henry A. Crabb and A. C. Peachy, who reported 
in favor of the bill with the sections relating to the sale of 
school lands stricken out, to be amended and passed as a sepa- 
rate bill. It was proposed by Mr. Soule and others who as- 
sisted in framing the bill, that the 500,000 acres of school lands 
should be located by the State Board of Education, and held 
until the land should sell for a reasonable price. 

But there was a big land speculation in the e^-es of some 
members of the Legislature; and so the policy prevailed of dis- 
posing of these lands at $2.25 per acre, payable in depreciated 
State script. The total amount finally realized from this mag- 
nificent land grant was only about $600,000. It might have 
been made two or three millions. 

FIRST STATE SCHOOL TAX. 

The bill was passed, and a provision was inserted in the rev- 
enue law levying a State school tax of five cents on each one hun- 
dred dollars of the taxable property of the State. This school law 
made provision for a State Board of Education, consisting of 



20 ^ SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

the Governor, Surveyor-General and Superintendent of Public 
Instruction; made County Assessors ex-officio County Superin- 
tendents; three School Commissioners in each district, elected 
for one year; constables to be School Census Marshals; the 
school year to end October 31; State School Fund to be ap- 
portioned to districts according to the number of census chil- 
dren between five and eighteen 3'ears of age; State School Fund 
to be used exclusively for teachers' salaries, and fifty per cent. 
of County Fund for the same purpose; that no books of a de- 
nominational or sectarian character should be used in any com- 
mon schools; defined the duties of County Superintendents, 
and of the State Superintendent and School Commissioners; 
authorized the Common Council in incorporated towns to raise 
a school tax not to exceed three cents on a hioidred dollars; to 
provide for examination of teachers; to make rules and regula- 
tions for government of schools; authorized counties to levy a 
school tax not exceeding three cents on a liundred dollars; pro- 
vided that no school should receive any apportionment of piiblic 
money, iinless free from all denominatioiial and sectarian bias, con- 
trol or infl.nence ivhatever; and closed by giving permission to 
teachei's to assemble at Sacramento, once a year, on the call 
of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to discuss and 
recommend improvements in teaching. Approved May 3, 1862. 

9. SECOND STATE SCHOOL REPORT, 1852. 

In his second annual report, Mr. Marvin stated that the num- 
ber of children between four and eighteen years of age was 
17,821; that by a blunder of the Enrolling Clerk, the section 
creating the ofiice of County Superintendent was omitted, iand 
the duties were specified without creating the ofiice, and in 
consequence thereof the State Board of Education had not 
been able to apportion the State Fund, which at that time 
amounted to $18,289, of which $14,874 was received from the. 
five cent revenue tax; that the sales of school lands had 
amounted to 150,000 acres, yielding $300,000, on interest at the 
rate of seven per cent, per annum. He recommended that the 
County Assessors be made ex-officio County Superintendents; 
that Trustees be required to report to the State Superintendent 
as well as to County Superintendents; thai the Catholic schools 
be cdlowed their vro rata of the public /and; that no necessity ex- 



AND SCHOOL EEPOETS. 21 

isted for a normal school, as the supply of teachers was greater 
than the demand; that the number of organized public schools 
was 20, the number of children attending public school 3314, 
and the total expenditure as reported, $28,000. 

The report embraced twelve mission and church schools in 
various parts of the State, including 579 children in attendance. 



10. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1853. 
SALE OF SCHOOL LANDS. 

' The law regulating the sale of 500,000 acres of school lands, 
passed May 3, 1852, authorized the Governor to issue land 
warrants of not less than IGO acres, nor more than 320 acres; 
the State Treasurer was authorized to sell said lands at two dollars 
per acre, and to receive in payment Controller's warrants drawn 
upon the General Fund, or the bonds of the civil debt of the 
State; and to couvei't all moneys and all State three per cent, 
bonds or Controller's warrants so received by him into bonds 
of the civil funded debt of the State, bearing interest at seven 
per cent, per annum, and to keep such bonds as a special 
deposit, marked " School Fund," to the credit of said School 
Fund. 

Under this provision the sales of land in 1852 amounted to 
150,000 acres, yielding $300,000. 

AMENDMENTS. 

At the fourth session of the Legislature, 1853, the school law 
was amended by the following provisions: That Controller's 
warrants, received for school lands, should draw interest at 
seven per cent., the same rate as civil bonds; that the State 
Treasurer should keep a separate and distinct account of the 
Common School Fund, and of the interest and income thereof, 
and that no portion should be devoted to any other purpose; 
that County Assessors should be made ex-qfficio County Super- 
intendents; that all county school officers should be paid such 
compensation as allowed by County Supervisors; that cities 
should have power to raise by tax whatever amount of money 
was necessary for school purposes; that counties should have 
power to lev}^ a school tax not exceeding five cents on a hundred 
dollars; that religious and sectarian schools should receive a 
pro rata share of the School Fund. 



22 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

The provision allowing the Catholic schools a share of the 
School Fund was as follows: 

"Sec. 7. Article yire of said act (1852) is hereby amended by 
adding after section iivo the following additional sections: 

"' Section Tliree. The Count}^ Superintendent may and is hereby 
empowered, in incorporated cities, to appoint three School Commis- 
sioners for any common school or district, upon petition of the 
inhabitants thereof requesting the same. 

" ' SecUon Four. Such schools shall be and are hereby entitled 
to all the rights and i^rivileges of any other city or common school, 
in the j^i'o rata, division of school money raised by taxation, and shall 
receive its proportion of money from the State School Fund in the 
annual distribution; provided, they are conducted in accordance with 
the requirements of this act.'" 

This provision gave rise to the formation of the so-called 
" ward schools " of San Francisco. 

II. THIRD ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT, 1853. 

Paul K. Hubbs, who had been a member of the last previous 
Legislature, was elected as successor to John G. Marvin, and 
took office on the first of January, 1S54. In his very brief 
annual report, January 24, 1854, he stated that the School Fund, 
from the sale of school lauds, amounted to $463,000, on which 
the annual interest Avas $32,000; that the sale of school lands 
had entirely ceased, and that there remained iinsold 208,000 
acres of the 500,000 acre grant. He dwelt on the necessity of 
reserving all sales of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections for 
township funds exclusively. Mr. Hubbs further recommended 
that the School Fund be apportioned according to the average 
attendance on school, instead of the number of census children, 
and urged the establishment of a State university. 

No tabular statistics whatever were published with this report. 

12. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1854. 

In the fifth session of the Legislature, 1854, it was provided 
in the Eevenue Act that fifteen per cent, of the State poll taxes 
should be paid into the School Fund. A well-prepared school 
law was introduced by Hon. D. R. Ashley, which, among other 
things, repealed the sections alloio'mg secLarian schools a i^ro raia 
share of the School Fund. It met with strong opposition, 
finally passed to engrossment, but was buried in the rubbish of 
unfinished business at the end of the session. 

\ 



AND SCHOOL EEPOETS. 23 

13. FOURTH ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT, 1854. 

Superintendent Hubbs opened- his second report witli the 
statement, "that, though the average attendance on school had 
increased from 2000 in 1853 to 5751 in 1854, the report never- 
theless exhibited the lamentable fact that the children of our 
State are growing up devoid of learning to read and write." He 
recommended the establishment of a State Industrial School; 
that School Commissioners be elected for three years, one 
annually; that the office of County Superintendent be abolished, 
as tending to unnecessary expense; that Township Treasurers 
be elected, to report to the State Superintendent; argued in 
favor of Township School Funds; stated that no income had 
ever been derived from "escheated estates," though it had been 
estimated that millioushe\oug,ed of right to that fund; and urged 
a State university. A crude and confused tabular statement 
was attached to this report. 

14. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1855. 

During the sixth session of the Legislature, 1855, Hon. D. R. 
Ashley introduced a school bill which was in substance the 
same as that defeated at the last previous session. After some 
opposition, with a few amendments it became a law, approved 
May 3, 1855. 

This revised law enlarged the powers of School Trustees; pro- 
vided for the election of County Superintendents, and defined 
their duties; and empowered the Common Councils of incor- 
porated cities to raise a school tax not exceeding twenty-five 
cents on a hundred dollars; to collect and disburse school 
moneys; to establish school districts; to provide by election or 
by appointment for City Boards of Education, and City Super- 
intendents; to establish schools on petition of fifty heads of 
families, provided that no sectarian doctrines should be taught 
therein, and that such schools be under the same supervision as 
other schools. 

SECULAR SCHOOLS. 

It provided that no school should be entitled to any share of 
the public fund that had not been taught by teachers duly ex- 
amined and approved by legal authority, and that no sectarian 
books should be used, and no sectarian doctrines should be 



24 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

tauglit in any pnblic scliool under penalty of forfeiting tlie pub- 
lic funds. The striugeut provision settled then, and probably 
forever, the question of an American sj^stem of public schools 
in this State, free from the bitterness of sectarian strife and the 
intolerance of religious bigotry. The public schools are free to 
the children of the people, and free from the influence of church 
or sect. 

This law of 1855 also provided that Controller's warrants paid 
into the Treasury for school lands should draw the same rate of 
interest as civil bonds, and that the State Treasurer should in- 
dorse on such warrants, "Common School Fund," and that no 
portion of such securities should be sold or exchanged, except 
by special act of the Legislature; it authorized counties to raise 
a school tax not exceeding ten cents on a hundred dollars, to 
apportion the same on the same basis as the State Fund, and to 
appropriate the moneys so derived for building houses, pur- 
chasing libraries, or for salaries. This law contained many ex- 
cellent provisions, and was a very great advance on all previous 
school bills. Its main features are retained in the school law of 
the present day. 

15. FIFTH ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT, 1856. 

Superintendent Hubbs renewed his recommendations for the 
sale of school lands, and put in a special plea for Township 
Funds; recommended that all school lands and School Funds 
be placed under the control of the State Board of Education; 
asked a direct appropriation of $100,000; considered the new 
scJioolIaw behi)id the age; recommended that the office of County 
Superintendent be abolished, and that the district township 
system be adopted; that the School Fund be apportioned ac- 
cording to the average daily attendance. 

This report was accompanied by inaccurate statistical tables. 

16. SIXTH ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT, 1856. 

The last report of Superintendent Hubbs was a brief one, 
without any statistical table whatever — not even the number of 
census children in the State. 

He urged all his previous recommendations concerning school 
lands, and township lands in particular, the establishment 
of a grand university, Avith an agricultural department, and 



AND SCHOOL EEPOETS. 25 

a military scliool; a legislative requirement that a ■uniform series 
of elementary hooks be used in all the public scJiools; entered liis 
protest against certain " partisan and sectional " text-books sent 
him from the East; and closed by a eulogy on the English lan- 
guage and the Anglo-Saxon race. 



17. SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT, 1857. 

Paul K. Hubbs was succeeded in office, iu 1857, by Andrew 
J. Moulder. 

Mr. Moulder's first report opened as follows : 

The number of schools has increased, in four years, from 53 to 
367 — nearly sevenfold; the number of teachers, from 50 to 486 — ■ 
nearl}^ ninefold; the number of children reported by census, from 
11,242 to 85,722 — more than threefold; whilst the semi-annual con- 
tribution by the State has dwindled from $53,511.11 to $28,342.16, 
or nearly one half; and the average paid each teacher, from $955 to 
$58.32 — that is to say, to less than one sixteenth of the average 
under the first apportionment. 

I will not waste words on such an exhibit. If it be not con- 
vincing that the support derived from the State is altogether in- 
sufficient, and ought to be augmented, no aj^peal of mine could en- 
force it. 

But this I may be permitted to say, that we have no such thing 
as public schools, in the full acceptation of the term — that is to saj', 
schools at which all the children of the State may be educated, //-ee 
of expense. That $9.72 per mouth, to each teacher, contributed by 
the State, never can maintain a public school; that the contribu- 
tions by parents and guardians to keep up the schools are onerous, 
oftentimes unequal, and must, in time, damp their ardor in the cause 
of education; that our 367 schools are comparatively in their infancy, 
and now, above all other times, should be cherished and encouraged 
by the State. Lacking such fostering care and encouragement, it is to 
be feared they will languish, and gradually lose their hold upon the 
popular favor. Is it not worth more than an ordinary effort to avert 
such a calamity ? 

He recommended that the maximum rate of county school 
tax be increased from ten cents to twenty cents on a hundred 
dollars; that no warrants should be issued by Trustees on the 
District Funds, unless there was cash in the Treasury to pay 
them; and that all funds coming into the Treasury during one 
school year should be used exclusively for the payment of ex- 
penses of that year; asked an appropriation of $3000 for Teach- 
ers' Institutes; favored the establishment of a State Industrial 
School; recommended that all school lauds be placed under the 
2 



26 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

immediate charge of the State Board of Education, with power 
to locate and sell at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre; 
that the proceeds of the sales of the 16th and 36th sections of 
township lands be consolidated into one general school fund, 
and that a State Military Institute be established. 

The following extract will illustrate his views on a State 
University : 

Ours is eminently a practical age. "We want no pale and sickly 
scholars, profound in their knowledge of the dead or other lan- 
guages and customs. We need energetic citizens, skilled in the 
arts of the living, and capable of instructing their less favored fel- 
lows in the pursuits that contribute to the material prosperity of 
our State. For' what useful occupation are the graduates of most 
of our old colleges lit? and not of ours alone, but of the time- 
honored universities of England. Many of them are bright schol- 
ars, ornaments to their alma maler — they are perhaps all that the 
system under which they have been instructed could make them ; 
they are learned in the antiquities of natious long since gone ; they 
are eloquent in Latin ; they may write a dissertation on the Greek 
IDarticle ; be masters of the rules of logic and the dogmas of ethics 
— all valuable acquirements, it is true; but when, after years of 
toil, they have received their diploma, their education for practical 
life has just commenced. They have still to study for a profession 
— are still dejDendent upon their parents. 

This may do for old settled communities, but it will never 
answer for California. A young man at seventeen, eighteen, or 
twenty years of age, in this State, must expect to start in life for 
himself. He must have some occupation that will maintain him. 
Longer dependence is not to be tolerated or expected. 

To fit our youth for such occupations, to end this dependence, 
must be the object of our university. 

I would, tberefore, urge that such professorships only shall be 
established at first as will turn out practical and scientific civil 
engineers; mining engineers; surveyors; metallurgists; smelters; 
assayers; geologists, or scientific prospectors; chemists, both manu- 
facturing and agricultural; architects; builders; and last, but not 
least, school teachers. 

Let me call your attention, however, to the necessity of edu- 
cating a class of our young men in mining engineering. 

The character of mining has undergone great changes since 
eighteen hundred and forty-nine and eighteen hundred and fifty- 
Enterprises are now conducted on an extensive scale. Tunnels of 
great magnitude, with labyrinthine galleries, are run into the 
mountains; deep shafts, with far-stretching drifts, are sunk; quartz 
works and mills are multiplying. In all these enterprises a skillful 
engineer would be a valuable acquisition; and, as they progress in 
magnitude, his services would become indispensable. It is from 
the want of such directing intelligence that we so often hear of 
accidents in the mines. Our State has scarcely started hi the work 
of internal improvements. None ofiers more inducements — in 



AND SCHOOL REPOETS. 27 

none will more be needed. For these we sliall require c.ivil engi- 
neers and surveyors, and all such will, in a few years, find employ- 
ment. 

The statistical tables accompanying the report were very 
brief, embracing only the number of census children and the 
average daily attendance. 



i8. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1858. 

The Legislatures of 1856 and 1857 did not trouble them- 
selves about the school law, and no amendments worth men- 
tioning were made. 

The Legislature of 1858 made an advance in school legisla- 
tion by providing that school districts, by a vote of the people, 
could levy a district tax for the support of schools or for build- 
ing schoolhouses, under the restrictions that the district must 
have maintained a school four months; that the public money 
must be insufficient to defray one half the expense of another 
term; that a tax for supporting a school and for building a 
schoolhouse could not both be levied the same year, and that 
the trustees considered the tax advisable. This law was not 
well drawn, and great difficulty was experienced in collecting 
the taxes voted under it, the heavy taxpayers who chose to 
resist it generally escaping without payment. As a necessary 
result, comparatively few taxes were voted under it, and not 
till 1863 was a liberal and efitective law passed whose provisions 
were as binding as those regulating the collection of State or 
county taxes. 

The Legislature of 1856 passed a concurrent resolution in- 
structing their representatives in Congress to use their influence 
to secure the surveys of the 16th and 36th sections of township 
school lands, and also to secure a law authorizing townships 
in the mineral districts to locate two sections in lieu thereof on 
the agricultural lands of the State. 

The Legislature of 1858 passed a similar concurrent resolu- 
tion. 

A law was passed providing for the sale of the remainder of 
the 500,000 acre grant, and the 72 sections for a State univer- 
sity, which provided that the Governor should appoint a land 
locating agent in each land district of the State, who should 
locate in tracts not exceeding 320 acres; that purchasers should 



28 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

pay $1.25 per acre, or, if tbey preferred, twenty per cent, down, 
and interest on the remainder at ten per cent, per annum, in 
advance; that said agents should also locate lauds in lieu of 
occupied 16th and 36th sections, at the request of the County 
Supervisors; that the State Board of Examiners, whenever it 
should appear that more than $10,000 had been received by the 
State Treasurer as purchase-money for such lands, should pur- 
chase bonds of the civil funded debt of the State, after adver- 
tising, at their lowest values; that sacli bonds should be marked 
"School Fund," and held in custody of the State Treasurer; 
that at the expiration of one year the State Board of Examiners 
should take and use $57,600 of any money belonging to the 
School Fund and purchase bonds, which should be marked 
" Seminary Fund," and that all interest on said fund should also 
be invested in bonds. 

An act was also passed repealing that of 1855, and providing 
for the sale of the 16th and 36th sections of township lands by 
the Boards of Supervisors. 

ig. EIGHTH ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT, 1858. 

This was one of the longest and ablest of Mr. Moulder's re- 
ports. He opened with the statement that the schools of Cali- 
fornia were not creditable to the State, and showed the neces- 
sity of an immediate appropriation by the State of $100,000. 
Concerning this, he goes on to say: 

A classification and analysis of the reports of full 2000 school 
officers to this department show that there are 40,530 children in 
the State between 4 and 18 years of age; that the whole number 
attending school during the year 1858 was 19,822, and that the daily 
average attendance was but 11,183. It follows that 20,708 children 
have not been inside of a public schoolhouse, and that 29,347 have, 
in effect, received no instruction during the year. 

If this state of things is "very good for California," and we do 
not take instant and effective means to remedy it, these 29,347 
neglected children will grow up into 29,347 benighted men and 
women; a number nearly sufficient, at ordinary times, to control 
the vote of the State, and, in consequence, to shape its legislation 
and its destiny ! 

Damning as the record is, it is yet lamentably true, that during 
the last five j^ears the State of California has paid $754,193.80 for 
the support of criminals, and but $284,183.69 for the education of 
the young! 

In other words, she has paid nearly three times as mvich for the 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 29 

support of an average of four hundred criminals as for the training 
and culture of thirty thousand children. 

To make the point more forcible, the figures show that she has 
expended $1,885 on every criminal, and $9 on every child! 

He recommended that districts should be required to main- 
tain a school six months, instead of three, to entitle them to 
apportionment; that the authority of examining teachers should 
be transferred from Trustees to a County Board; that the maxi- 
mum county tax should be raised to twenty cents on a hundred 
dollars; that County Treasurers should not be allowed a per- 
centage for disbursing State school moneys; that County Super- 
intendents, Marshals, and Trustees, should be paid out of the 
County General Fund ; and that Negroes, Mongolians, and In- 
dians, should not be allowed to attend the schools for white 
children, under penalty of the forfeiture of the public school 
money by districts admitting such children into school. 

He reported that he had prepared a volume of "Commenta- 
ries on the School Law," containing suggestions on school archi- 
tecture and extracts from the best authors on education. He 
argued at length the policy of consolidating the proceeds of the 
sales of the 16tli and 36th sections into a State Fund. 

This report closed by urging a Military Institute, and attached 
to the tabular statements, which were better arranged than those 
of any preceding report, were the reports of County Superin- 
tendents. 

20. NINTH ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT, 1859. 

In this report Mr. Moulder renewed several of the recom- 
mendations of his previous report; recommended the establish- 
ment of a State Normal School ; the organization of State and 
County Boards for examining teachers; the increase of the maxi- 
mum county school tax to twenty-five cents on a hundred dol- 
lars; an appropriation for paying the expenses of State Insti- 
tutes ; an appropriation for traveling expenses to enable the 
State Superintendent to deliver lectures and visit schools 
throughout the State; that the Township School Funds should 
be consolidated into one common fund, which question he ar- 
gued conclusively, supporting his position by letters from Land 
Commissioners at Washington, and from various State Super- 
intendents, and concluded by an elaborate argument in favor of 
a Military Institute to be established at Monterey. 



30 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 



21. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, i860. 

Several important amendments were made to the school law 
by the Legislature of 1860. The maximum rate of county school 
tax was raised from ten cents to twenty -five cents on a hundred 
dollars; the State Superintendent Avas authorized to hold a State 
Teachers' Institute aunuallj^, and an appropriation of $3000 was 
made for payment of expenses; the State Superintendent was 
authorized to appoint a State Board of Examination, with power 
to grant State teachers' certificates, valid for two years, and the 
School Funds of any one year were required to be used exclu- 
sively for that year ; County Superintendents were authorized 
to appoint County Boards of Examination, consisting exclu- 
sively of teachers, with power to grant teachers' certificates, 
valid for one year ; the State Board of Education was author- 
ized to adopt a State series of text-books, and to compel their 
adoption, under penalty of forfeiting the public school moneys, 
to go into efi'ect in November, 1861; and an appropriation of 
),000 made for building a State Beform School at Marysville. 



22. TENTH ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT, i860. 

This report opened as follows : 

It is apparent, from an inspection of these statistics, that the 
amount contributed by the State to the cause of education is wretch- 
edly insufficient. It is a pittance almost beneath contempt. It 
amounts to about one dollar and forty cents per annum for the 
education of each schoolable child in the State. 

With all the aid derived from local taxes, rate bills, and private 
subscription, it pays only an average of sixty-six dollars and seventy- 
two cents per month to each teacher in the State. 

A first-class bootblack obtains almost as much. 

I am almost disposed to believe that no teacher at all is better 
than an ignorant or unlettered one; but how can we expect to 
secure the services of highly educated and accomplished teachers 
for the pittance of sixty-six dollars and seventy-two cents per 
month ? 

He further urged a State Normal School, and a direct State 
appropriation for common schools; again argued in favor of 
consolidating Township Funds, and closed by stating that he 
had already exhausted argument in favor of a Military Institute. 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 31 

23. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1861. 

Early in the session of 1861, Hon. John Conness introduced 
a bill in tlie House, which was passed, providing for the sale 
of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of school lands, and 
that the proceeds should be paid into the State School Fund. 
Thus, after many years of impracticable legislation, in which 
each successive Legislature tinkered on a township land bill, a 
plain and practicable law was passed, under the provisions of 
which, in less than a year, nearl}^ 200,000 acres were sold, and 
the proceeds applied to the State School Fund. 

DIVISION OF THE SCHOOL MONEYS. 

During this session Mr. Montgomery introduced a bill pro- 
viding — 

That every school numbering- thirty pupils, established by the 
parents or g-uardians of such pupils, should have the right on ap- 
plication to be enrolled as a public school; that the common school 
branches should be taught five hours a day, with religious instruc- 
tions and catechism as an extra, at the will of the parents; that the 
parents or guardians should elect the trustees of such school, with 
full powers to control; and that the State Fund should be appor- 
tioned according to the number of children attending school. 

This bill was accompanied by a petition extensively signed; 
and, at one time, there was some danger of its passage. Hon. 
John Conness defended secular public schools, and the follow- 
ing extracts from his speech are worthy of a place in school 
history : 

A quarter of a century ago I landed from the deck of an emigrant 
ship, upon the shores of America. I was deposited there as a single 
grain of sand upon the sea shore by a wave of the ocean. Soon 
after my arrival I found my way to a free school, where I soon 
learned that my anticipations and fears were not realized. I found 
there, in lieu of intercourse with strangers, the greatest friendship 
that I have ever yet experienced at the hands of mankind. I was 
received into an institution established by the intelligence, the 
wisdom, the patriotism, and at the expense of a great and free 
people. I soon learned to appreciate the advantages that were 
placed before me. During the short period of seven months, being 
the interim between my arrival and my being placed, from the 
necessities that surrounded me, as an apprentice to a mechanic's 
trade, I enjoyed the opportunities for the acquirement of information 
and knowledge that was furnished by that common free school. 
Day by day, for I never missed a single day, nor fractional part of 
a day in my attendance, I experienced at the hands of the teachers 



32 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

api^ointed over me by tlie people, the most marked consideration 
and kindness. The very fact tbat I was a stranger seemed but to 
invite the attention and even the caresses of the noble man who 
stood at the head of that school. More than once — and I shall 
remember it to the last hour of my existence — I was desired to 
remain after the other children were dismissed from the school, to 
be spoken to, to be encouraged, to be led onward in the paths of 
education by my teacher. More than once he has j)laced his hand 
kindly iipon my head, and familiarly, because not in the presence 
of other children, addressed me, saying, ' John, you must make 
effort in this and in that particular direction — you are wanting in 
these particular parts — if you will only bring yourself up in these, 
you will occupy a foremost position in this school.' He marked my 
attempts at progress, and to me as well as to others he always 
reached out the encouraging hand of kindness, and s^Doke the word 
that led to emulation and ambition in the acquirement of knowledge. 
For me to have found an institution like that was a great acquisition 
and a great wonder. I could scarcely understand it then, although 
I believe I fully apj^reciated it, as I do to-day. Up to the period of 
my advent into that school I had not been favored with great or 
any considerable advantages in the way of education. I had never 
attended other than the village schoolhouse, where the commonest 
branches of education were taught, perhaps in the commonest way; 
and for the two years preceding my arrival I had been de^Drived of 
even these poor advantages by circumstances that I will not under- 
take to detail here. And to have found not only the means so 
abundant placed before me, but agents so kind and at the same time 
so able in administering the benefits and advantages of that institu- 
tion, sustained and supported at the public expense, commanded 
then, as I repeat will always command, ray profoundest admiration 
and regard. To that school, and to the beneficent people who 
established it, am I indebted, in great part, to say the least, for all 
that I am, be it little or much, to-day. Hence, sir, when the ques- 
tion of public schools — of free schools — in which the children of all 
may be educated without price, without distinction of class, of 
wealth, or of politics or religious opinions, is involved, it is no 
wonder that I should feel a deep interest in that question. Next to 
the unity and the continued and hapj^y prosperity of this glorioias 
country that we live in and are all common citizens of — next to its 
continued and prosperous existence, I owe all allegiance, all love, 
all admiration, and all effort, to the public schools of our country. 
****** 

I am aware that those who advocate this measure profess that 
they have no purpose in view but the perfection, completeness and 
extension of educational conditions and advantages; but I would 
recommend those j)ersons to begin in another way. I object to the 
manner in which they propose to begin to carry out such an end. 
Some of them say that the schools of California, or those of a por- 
tion of the State, are dens of infamy, are pestiferous in their 
character, are but sowing the seeds of immorality and death where 
they exist. But, as a remedy for these great abuses, for this great 
curse in our land, if it exists, do they propose to renew their efiibrts 



AND SCHOOL EEPORTS. 33 

to obtain the passage of such*la\vs or enforce sucli restrictions as 
will bring about a better condition of things ? I think not. What, 
then, do they projDOse? If I understand them, and I think I do, 
they propose to withdraw a portion of the children of the State from 
what are now known as the common schools of the State. The 
jjroposition or purpose in view is better stated to me outside of this 
hall b}' citizens of distinction, who are interested in passing this act 
which we are now discussing, than by the gentlemen who have 
discussed it here. Their proposition to me is plainly stated — so 
plainly that he who runs may read and understand it. They say, 
first, that the schools are now unfit for the reception of their children, 
or the children of their peo^^le. The}^ sa}^ they are common contrib- 
utors to the funds that are consumed in the support of the schools, 
and that as the schools are unfit for their children, therefore they 
have a right to withdraw their children from those schools. That 
part of the projjosition I admit, but I deny that it follows as a 
necessity, in common honesty and fairness, that they should also be 
entitled to receive a pro rata proportion of the common school 
moneys of the State, to be used under their direction for the support 
of such schools as they may establish. They say that this right 
exists in nature. Who, they ask, is so well entitled to the care, 
custody and training of a child as its natural parent ? They invoke 
the social faculties of mankind to aid them in this argument, because 
they draw a contrast between the system they propose and the one 
that now exists, by showing you that on the one hand the govern- 
ment of the State claims the control and jurisdiction of the children 
of the State, for the purj)ose of public education, while on the other 
hand they assert that no such relation should be permitted or 
authorized while the parent lives who gave existence to his ofi"spring, 
and whose greatest care is for his advancement and happiness. 



We are here with common objects, and the only question that 
is presented in connection with this bill now before us is plainly 
this: Shall we continue, b}" and through the agency of the State 
to support and carry out a system of public education in the State, 
or shall we not? For one, I am in favor of the afiirmative of this 
proposition; I am in favor of renewing effort; of bringing up the 
standard of education, and the moral condition of our schools, 
until they shall not only be fit for the reception of the children of 
our people, but shall also b}^ their superior excellence attract to our 
State parents and children from other lands. Adopt the projDOsi- 
tion that is made in this bill; let every private school that may be 
established by the parents of children or by their religious teachers, 
or for profit by teachers, have a pro rata share of the school money, 
and what will be the result? In a very short time the State of Cal- 
ifornia will be engaged in the interesting business of collecting- 
moneys from various sources for the purpose of education, and dis- 
bursing and distributing those moneys amongst private parties, to 
be by them applied in such a way as they see fit for the purposes 
of education. Inaugurate this system, drive home this wedge that 
is now pointed at your common school system, and you will have 



34 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

schools exclusively under the control and direction of sects and 
parties, as well as by persons engaged as educators for profit. 

^ ;(: ;ic * >(; :); 

I have heard nothing to convince me that this bill should pass, 
and that our system of education should be changed. I have heard 
no argument within this chamber, because I do not recognize as 
argument on that point all that is said about the condition of the 
schools as they now exist. Our public school system in the United 
States of America is one of the proudest evidences of the greatness 
of our people, as it furnishes the basis and substratum of our insti- 
tutions. Let religionists, of whatever class or kind, teach their 
doctrines and dogmas. They have their organizations for that 
especial purpose, and they contribute their means, and judiciously 
and carefully apply them to these ends. It is our business, by law 
and constitutional sanction, to preserve each in its own particular 
career, without interference from its neighboring organization. It 
is that preservation and defense against assault upon any, by either, 
that has marked our land and made it what it proudly is — the 
asylum of freedom in the world. No greater means of its continu- 
ance, no surer or more certain mode for its preservation can be 
found, I assert, than in the preservation of our common school 
system. While we denominate our schools jxiblic and common 
schools, let that not, as is the case now in the interior of our State, 
be a misnomer any longer. Let them be free, and furnish the 
means of education to the j^oor of the land. Your future members 
of the legislature, congressmen, governors, and presidents, are to 
be found among these classes, for nature has baptized the child of 
poverty with the blessing of energy. All the history of our country 
and of every free country conclusively jjroves this proposition, for 
the great men of every free land have sprung from the common 
people. Education is particularly for them; it is due to them from 
our hands and the hands of the great body of the people. I would 
gladly vote for a law that would comjDel the attendance of all 
children of a certain age at some school, for a certain length of 
time each year; but let us first furnish the means before we under- 
take to apply such a restriction. * * * * 

I have heard it intimated more than once that this question 
was to be made a political question; that the position that men 
would take here would be carefully written down and noted, and 
that their political status hereafter would be determined by the 
position they took. I have regretted this exceedingly; but if there 
were any reason why I should speak at all upon this subject, so as 
to be incapable of being misunderstood, the latter would furnish 
the strongest one. Whenever any portion of the people of this 
State, or my fellow-citizens, see fit to object to me, because of the 
opinions I entertain, or the efforts I make in the line and direction 
of duty, let them object, and let them act. I ask no favors. 
Whenever any portion of the people cannot find in my acts some- 
thing to approve, let them condemn; it may be that I can do as 
well without them as they can without me. I have no high ad- 
miration for that class popularly denominated politicians — those 
whose opinions hang loosely about them; those changelings, who 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 35 

simply seek office that they may get bread. Our country has been 
cursed; its lamentable throes to-day are the legitimate and logical 
sequence of the action of these detestable creatures. My doctrine 
and instincts alike demand that upon any and all occasions I 
should speak out, and let what I say be tried upon its merits. I 
have no fear though, that this question will be made a political one. 
I do not think that there are within the limits of this State a suffi- 
cient number of men vain and foolish enough to undertake to erect 
as a standard of political action any form of supposed religious 
opinions. I do not believe there are any considerable number of 
men who will make it a condition of their suffrages hereafter, that 
the vote to be cast here shall be cast in a particular direction. I 
trust in God, sir, that we will be spared such a condition of things. 
But if it should come, and there must be a war of opinions, all I 
have to say is, that I am prepared to bear my part in it. I would 
not, to-day, for the concentration of all the offices in the country 
into one, and mj enjoyment of that one, sacrifice the opinions that 
I have, or the action that my conscience demands of me in connec- 
tion with this subject. 



24. ELEVENTH ANNUAt. REPORT, 1861, 

In this report Mr. Moulder argued the necessity of more 
money to make the schools effective; asked for an appropriation 
of $5000 for a State Normal School, and published the report 
of the Committee on Normal Schools, appointed by the State 
Institute, of May, 1861; reported that the State Institute had 
been largely attended; that the transfer of the power of exam- 
ining teachers from Trustees to State and County Boards of Ex- 
amination was driving the quacks out of the occupation; touched 
upon the subject of schoolhouses; stated that the law author- 
izing the adoption of a State series of text-books had been sud- 
denly repealed near the close of the session of the Legislature 
of 1861, and asked for the passage of another; asked the Legis- 
lature to make some provision for school libraries; stated that 
within eight mouths after the passage of the act of April 22, 
1861, 165,463 acres of township lands had been, or were about 
to be sold ; and closed by referring to his previous reports re- 
lating to a State Military Institute. 

25. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1862. 

The Legislature of this session passed an act establishing a 
State Normal School in the city of San Francisco, and made an 
appropriation for that purpose of $3000. The State Normal 



36 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

Scliool was subsequently opened during the same year, and 
Mr. Aliira Holmes was appointed principal. 



26. TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT, 1862. 

In his last report, Mr. Moulder recommended a plan for 
funding the indebtedness of the State to the School Fund ; 
that Trustees be required to report the amount of interest, 
if any, which they received from Township School Funds; 
that power be conferred on Trustees to collect rate bills by law; 
that the State Board of Education be empowered to adopt a 
uniform series of text-books; stated that the State Normal 
School had been successfully organized, and asked an appro- 
priation of $6000; alluded to a State Agricultural School under 
the act of Congress granting lands to the same; and closed by 
publishing his correspondence with State Controller Warren, 
who had declined to pay the semi-annual interest on the State 
indebtedness to the School Fund. 



27. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1863. 

During this session of the Legislature, the Senate Committee 
on Education referred the subject of revising and codifying the 
school laws to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, John 
Swett. 

Public opinion was not yet sufficiently awakened to secure any 
very liberal taxation for support of schools, but some good pro- 
visions were incorporated into the law. 

The following are some of the leading provisions: 

1. A provision requiring the Superintendent, at the expense 
of the State, to furnish a State school register to each school. 

2. Requiring the State Superintendent to visit schools, to 
attend County Institutes, and to address public assemblies on 
subjects relating to public schools, and providing for the pay- 
ment of actual traveling expenses, not to exceed $1000. 

3. Provision for the annual appropriation of $150 out of the 
County General Fund for the County Teachers' Institute. 

4. Making the term of office of School Trustees three years, 
instead of one, and providing for the election of one Trustee 
annually. 

5. Providing a stringent law for the assessment and collec- 



AND SCHOOL REPOKTS. 37 

tion of district taxes for building purposes, or for the support 
of free schools. 

6. Providing for the assessment and collection of rate bills. 

7. Authorizing the State Board of Examination to issue State 
educational diplomas, valid for six years; State certificates of 
the first grade, valid for four years ; and second and third grade 
certificates, valid for two years. 

An act, framed and introduced by Hon. E. F. Dunne, was 
passed requiring all teachers, under penalty of being illegally 
employed, and of forfeiting their salaries, to take an oath of 
allegiance. 

SCHOOL FUND. 

An act, prepared by Governor Low and Hon. D. R. Ashley, 
was passed providing for the gradual funding of the indebted- 
ness of the State to the School Fund, which amounted at that 
time to $475,520. 

Under authority' of an act, approved May 3, 1852, providing 
for the disposal of the 500,000 acres granted to this State by 
act of Congress for the purpose of internal improvements, and 
reserved by the State Constitution for school purposes, it was 
made the duty of the State Treasurer to convert the proceeds 
"into bonds of the civil funded debt of the State, bearing seven 
per cent, interest per annum, and to keep such bonds as a special 
deposit in his custody, marked 'School Fund,' to the credit of 
said School Fund." 

This provision was never complied with, for payments were 
made in depreciated scrip, or Controller's warrants ; the scrip 
paid in was canceled, and to this extent the School Fund was 
used by the State to defray the ordinary expenses of govern- 
ment. The State, therefore, owed to the School Fund the sum 
of $475,520, derived from the sale of 237,760 acres of land, sold 
prior to April 23, 1858. 

The State had always recognized this debt by appropriating 
annually for school purposes a sum equal to the interest at seven 
per cent, per annum upon the amount of this indebtedness. 
But the school department was placed completely at the mercy 
of the annual general appropriation bill, and if no appropriation 
was made, as was the case in 1861 and 1862, there was no redress. 

This act, approved April 14, 1863, provided for the gradual 
funding of this unfunded debt to the School Fund, by requiring 
that whenever State bonds were redeemed, such bonds to such 



38 



SCHOOL LEGISLATION 



amount as slioiild thus be redeemed with tlie sum of $475,520 
should not be canceled, but should be kept as a special deposit 
in the custody of the Treasurer, marked "School Fund," in the 
same manner and for the same purposes as are the bonds di- 
rectly purchased for said School Fund. 

This was an important measure. Under its provisions the 
entire indebtedness of the State to the School Fund has been 
converted into State bonds at seven per cent. 



28. 



THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT, 1863. 

The constitutional amendments adopted in 1862, provided 
for the election of the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
at the Special Judicial Election, instead of at the general elec- 
tion, and for a term of four years. Superintendent Swett's 
first term of office — three years — was thus cut short to a term 
of eleven months. He was renominated and re-elected in Octo- 
ber, 1863. 

The following are some of the main topics treated of in Mr. 
Swett's first report. 



Eeceipts and Expenditures; 

Schools; 

School Children; 

Attendance; 

Teachers' Wages; 

Change of Teachers; 

County Institutes; 

Errors in Reports of County Superin- 
tendents; 

Reports of Teachers and Trustees; 

District School Trustees; 

Proceedings of State Teachers' Insti- 
tute; 

Convention of County Superintendents ; 

State Board of Examination; 

State Certificates and Diplomas; 

State Educational Society; 



County Teachers' Certiiicates; 

Reports and Blanks; 

School Registers; 

Order Books; 

State Normal School; 

The California Teacher; 

District School Libraries; 

SchooUiouses and School Architecture; 

State Agricultural School; 

University Fund ; 

Condition of the School Fund; 

Department of Public Instruction; 

State School Tax; 

The Schools and the State; 

Public Schools and Patriotism; 

Military Drill in School. 



The following is an extract from the argument in favor of a 
State School Tax : 

The most important measure which demands the attention of 
legislators, is that of a State school tax for the better maiuteuance 
of public schools. I believe the time has arrived in the history of 
our State when the absolute necessity of such action can be fully 
demonstrated, and when the efficiency of the schools cannot be 
greatly increased without it. Whenever the question of increased 
taxation is agitated, it is due to taxpayers and i.roperty-bolders 
that good and sufficient reasons should be explicitly set forth, and 



AND SCHOOL EEPORTS. 39 

that it should be clearlj^ shown that the public good requires it. 
The condition of the public schools, as exhibited by the statistical 
returns, will be to many minds conclusive evidence of the necessity 
of a State school tax ; but the importance of the question demands 
that argument should be added to the weight of facts and figures. 

Our American system of free schools is based upon two funda- 
mental principles or axioms: 

First. That it is the duty of a republican or representative gov- 
ernment, as an act of self-iDreservation, to provide for the education 
of every child. 

Second. That the property of the State should be taxed to pay 
for that education. 

Simple j)i'opositions thej seem; yet they have been recognized 
and acted upon in no other country but our own. Other nations, 
it is true, have their national systems of instruction partially sup- 
ported b}^ Government, and under Government control; but no na- 
tion in the history of the world has ever organized a system of 
schools like ours, controlled directly by the people, supported by 
taxation; free to all, without distinction of rank, wealth, or class; 
and training all children alike, whether foreign or native-born, to 
an intelligent comprehension of the duties, rights, privileges, and 
honors of American citizens. 

In the minds of the hard-fisted, iron-willed settlers of Massa- 
chusetts Bay, where, under the wintry sky of suffering, want, and 
war, the germs of our American school S3'stem struggled into exist- 
ence, common schools and taxation were as inseparably connected 
as were taxation and representation. 

A few extracts from the old colonial laws will show how early 
our free school sj^stem sprang into existence. A section of the 
Massachusetts Colony laws of 1642 reads as follows: 

"Forasmuch as the good education of children is of singular 
behoof and benefit to any commonwealth ; and whereas, many pa- 
rents and masters are too indulgent and negligent of their duty in 
that kind; it is ordered that the Selectmen of every town shall have 
a vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbors, to see, first: that 
none of them shall suffer so much bm-bcwism in any of their families 
as not to teach, by themselves, or others, their children and apprentices 
so much learning as may enable them perfectly to read the English 
tongue, upon penalty of twenty shillings for each neglect therein." 

In 1647 this law was followed by another, to the end, in the 
words of the statute, " that learning may not be buried in the graves of 
our fatliers in the Church and the Commoniveallh," which required 
everj' town of fift}' families to provide a teacher to instruct all the 
children of the town in reading and writing, and every town of a 
hundred families to set up a grammar school, with a teacher com- 
petent to fit young men for the university ; the expense of these 
schools to be borne by the town, or by the parents, as the town 
should determine. 

In 1692 the law provided that these schools should be suj^ported 
exclusively by tax levied on all the properly of the town. 

In 1785, an ordinance respecting the disposition of the public 
lands was introduced into the old Congress, referred to a committee. 



40 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

and passed on the 20th of May, which provided that the sixteenth 
section of every township should be reserved "for the maintenance 
of public schools." 

The celebrated ordinance of 1787, which confirmed the provisions 
of the land ordinance of 1785, further declared, that " getieral moral- 
ity and knowledge being necessary lo good government and the happiness 
of mankind, schools, and the ineans of education, shall be forever 
encouraged." 

As the results of this noble policy, more than fifty millions of 
acres of the public lands have been set apart for the purposes of 
education. 

It is said — leave the question of taxation to the citizens of each 
district? The fact that only eighteen districts voted a tax last year 
is good evidence that the districts will fail to do their duty. If it is 
argued that the Boards of Supervisors of the different counties will 
assess a county tax sufficient to maintain good schools, the statistical 
exhibit of the condition of the schools proves the contrary. Only 
four counties in the State assess the maximum rate allowed by law. 

Shall we rely on the interest of the School Fund for the support 
of our public schools? Our School Fund amounts to less than a 
million of dollars, and it will not be largely increased for many 
years to come. The annual apj^ortionment from that source amounts 
to only one dollar per child; is that sufficient to properly educate 
the children? 

Can it be said, in view of facts, that California is doing her full 
duty in maintaining public schools ? She raises by taxation only 
$4.42 per child, and the total amount raised from all sources, rate 
bills included, is only $7. Massachusetts raised by tax, last year, 
$G.44 per child; and as the cost of educating in California is at least 
four times as great as in that State, to make as liberal a provision we 
ought to raise $25 per child. The cost of educating a child in the 
public schools for ten months in the year, in San Francisco, where 
it is made economical in consequence of classification and the con- 
centration of large numbers, is $21 per year. Is an average of $7 per 
child sufficient for the State at large? San Francisco derives from 
all sources an average of $13.70 per child; and yet, with this liberal 
provision, the public schools are crowded to their utmost capacity, 
and one thousand children more would attend were room provided. 

Is it wise for legislators to fold their arms in apathetic indiffer- 
ence, when twenty thousand children of school age, or twenty-five 
and one half per cent., are reported as "not attending an}^ school ?" 
Is this recognizing the principle ' ' that it is the bounden duty of 
Government to provide for the instruction of all youth?" When 
the average length of time school is continued is only six months in 
the year, is it probable that the children will be more than half 
educated ? When the percentage of daily attendance on the public 
schools is only twenty-five per cent, of the whole number of children 
in the State of school age, and the percentage of attendance on the 
whole number enrolled is only fifty- five per cent , can the State be 
said to educate her children ? 

When California has only 219 free schools out of 754 public 



AND SCHOOL REPOKTS. 41 

schools, can she boast of her liberality in the presence of the other 
loyal States, whose schools are all free schools ? 

If one State in the Union needs a system of free schools more 
than any other, that State is California. Her population is drawn 
from all nations. The next generation will be a composite one, 
made up of the heterogeneous atoms of all nationalities. Nothing- 
can Americanize these chaotic elements and breathe into them the 
spirit of our institutions but the public schools. 

STATE TAX. . 

As the first step towards the organization of a system of free 
schools, and the better maintenance of the public schools, a special 
State school tax of half a mill on the dollar ought to be levied on 
the assessable property of the State. This would yield a revenue of 
at least $75,000, or about one dollar per child — and two dollars per 
child on the number enrolled in the public schools. True, this 
would not make the schools free, neither would it continue them ten 
months in the year; but it would give a fresh stimulus to county 
and district taxation, and, in four years, would, I believe, give the 
State a system of schools virtually free. 

The public opinion of the State is in advance of legislation. 
After traveling extensively through the State, addressing public 
assemblies, with every facility for careful observation, it is m}' opinion 
that the people would indorse this measure, were it submitted to a 
jpopular vote, by an overwhelming majority. 

The following petition, prepared by the State Superintendent, 
has been extensively circulated in the various school districts 
throughout the State : 

" PETITION FOR STATE SCHOOL TAX. 

" To the Honorable the Ilemhers of the 

Legislature of the State of California : 

" Whereas, We believe that it is the duty of a representative gov- 
ernment to maintain public schools as an act of self-preservation, 
and that the property of the State should be taxed to educate the 
children of the State; and whereas, the present School Fund is 
wholly inadequate to sustain a system of Free Schools; we, the un- 
dersigned, qualified electors of the State of California, respectfully 
ask your honorable body to levy a Special State Tax of half a mill on 
the dollar, during the fiscal years eighteen hundred and sixty-four 
and eighteen hundred and sixty-five, the proceeds of the same to be 
disbursed in the same manner as the present State School Fund." 

All these petitions have not yet been returned to the Depart- 
ment of Public Instruction, and it is impossible to estimate the 
number of signatures obtained. 

In the districts where they have been circulated, teachers and 
school ofiicers report that it was a rare exception to find a man de- 
clining to sign them, and that the only objection raised was that the 
petition did not ask for a higher tax. 

The names attached to this petition will be entitled to the seri- 
3 



42 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

ous consideration of legislators. Tbey will represent the substan- 
tial citizens of the State; men of families, men of property, men 
who, in attaching- their names, consider it equivalent to voting the 
tax and paying it. 

A State tax of half a mill on the dollar was levied last year and 
is to be levied annually for carrying on the work of building the 
State Capitol; shall the work of building schoolhouses cease ? By 
the time the Capitol is finished, it will have cost as much as all the 
schoolhouses in the State built up to that time. Is it not quite as 
essential that houses should be erected for educating a hundred 
thousand electors as that a costly pile should be built for the accom- 
modation of a hundred and fifty legislators ? 

Are we taxed more heavily than the States which have borne the 
burden of the war ? Are we so tax-ridden and so poor that we can- 
not raise one-fourth as much for educating our children as Illinois 
or Michigan or Massachusetts ? California stands to-day the most 
peaceful and the most prosperous State in the Union. When the 
people of other States, staggering under taxation, their sources of 
prosperity dried up, their able-bodied laborers more than decimated 
by the calls of the army — when they declare that not a dollar less 
shall be raised for schools, that not a schoolhouse shall be closed — 
shall California, of all the States, alone shrink back from the duty 
of educating her children? Shall all our inexhaustible resources of 
mineral wealth be expended on " feet," and the brains of the chil- 
dren be left undeveloped? Shall millions be exj^ended in con- 
structing a Pacific Railroad, and the State fail to lay the solid founda- 
tions of character and intelligence on which rest the permanent 
prosperity of the generation which will reap the benefits of that 
great highway of the world? Shall we make every sacrifice of men 
and money to maintain the Union, for a generation unfitted, through 
want of education, to appreciate either our sacrifices or the value of 
the inheritance we leave them? 

The real wealth of the State lies not in mines of silver, or gold, 
or copper; not in productive fields and fertile valleys, but in her edu- 
catecl men and intelligent free laborers. Educated mind has made 
the world rich by its creative power. The intelligent minds which 
have invented the hundreds of labor-saving machines in every de- 
partment of industry, have created a wealth greater than the total 
pi'oduct of the mines ot Mexico, California and Australia combined. 
All these inventions were once dim ideas in the busy brains of edu- 
cated men; ignorance found out none of them. 

How many dollars is the electric telegraph worth ? How many 
cattle and horses and copper mines the invention of sewing ma- 
chines ? What influence is so mighty in developing this creative 
power of society as the intelligence imparted in the public schools ? 
Gro to the Patent Office, aiid find out how many inventions come 
from the land of common schools, and how many from the States 
that have failed to establish them. 

The machinery brought into use since eighteen hundred and 
sixteen is estimated to be equal to the labor of five hundred millions 
of men. 

Ignorance never invented a machine to save the labor of a single 
man. 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 43 

The life of the nation lies not in a few great men, not in a few 
brilliant minds, but is made up of the men who drive the plow, 
who build the ships, who run the mills, and fill the machine-shops, 
who build the locomotives and steam engines, who construct the 
railroads, who delve in the mines, who cast the cannon, who man 
the ironclads and gunboats, who shoulder the musket, and who do 
the fighting; these constitute the life and strength of the nation; 
and it is with all these men that the public schools have done and 
are now doing their beneficent work. The nation will not be saved 
by any one " great man;" the bone and muscle of intelligent labor- 
ing men must work out its salvation. Blundering statesmen may 
mar the fortunes of the war; general after general may show up 
his own incompetence; the concentrated and consolidated intelli- 
gence of the workingmen and fighting men will, in the end, prove 
victorious. "When the bayonet has done its work, the ballot-box 
must protect the freedom won on the battle-field. When every 
ballot represents an idea, and falls electrified with intelligence to 
" execute a freeman's will," the States will revolve harmoniously 
around the central sun of a consolidated Union; no star will shoot 
off in eccentric orbit into the chaos of disunion, or the cometary 
darkness and desolation of secession. 

29. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1864. 

The supplementary an,d amendatory bill prepared by the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, and introduced by the 
Committee on Education in the Assembly, Mr. J. J. Owen, 
Chairman, contained the following provisions : 

1. Levying an annual State school tax of five cents on each 
$100 of taxable property in the State, to be apportioned in the 
same manner as the interest of the State School Fund. 

2. Requiring each county to levy a minimum county school 
tax equal to two dollars for each child between 4 and 18 years 
of age. 

3. Raising the maximum rate of county tax allowed by law 
from twenty-five cents to thirty cents on each $100. 

4. Making it the imperative duty of Public School Trustees 
to levy a direct property tax sufficient to maintain a public 
school five months in each year, whenever the State and county 
school money shall be insufficient for that jjurpose. 

5. Authorizing County Superintendents to subscribe for a 
sufficient number of copies of some State educational journal 
to furnish each Board of School Trustees in the State with one 
copy, at an expense not exceeding one dollar a year. 

6. Allowing County Superintendents a sum for postage and 
expressage equal to two dollars for each school district. 



44 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

7. Requiring bistorj of the United States, and physiology 
and hygiene, to be studied in all the schools above the grade 
of primary. 

This bill passed the Assembly without opposition, but in the 
Senate a determined fight was made to defeat it. The follow- 
ing is the Senate vote on this bill, which was one of the great- 
est advances ever made in school legislation in the State : 

Ayes — Benton, Burnell, Crane, Cunningham, Foulke, Hall, 
Haswell, Kutz, Maddox, McMurtry, Moyle, Porter, Roberts, 
Shepard, Tuttle, and Wright— 18. 

Noes — Buckley, Dodge, Evans, Freeman, Gaskill, Hamilton, 
Hawes, Montgomery, Pearce, Redingtou, Rush, and Shafter 
— 12. 

30. FIRST BIENNIAL REPORT, 1864-65. 

The change of the sessions of the Legislature from annual to 
biennial required biennial school reports instead of annual. 

The First Biennial Report was the most elaborate of Mr. 
Swett's reports. It opened as follows : 

At the opening of this report, I take pleasure in stating that the 
criticisms of 1863 no longer apply to our school system, and that the 
hope expressed in 1864 has been more than realized. 

Notwithstanding the school year closed before the bountiful 
harvests of the avitumn were gathered, and while the State was still 
suffering from its previous financial prostration, the statistical re- 
turns exhibit an educational progress of which all Californiaus may 
well be proud. 

While the increase of taxable property in the State from 1863 
to 1864 was only three and seven-tenths per cent. , the increase of 
school money raised by taxation alone, of 1865 over 1864, on the 
assessment-roll of 1864, was ninetj'-one and seven-tenths per cent. 

The average length of schools has been increased, since 1863, 
nearly one month. While the number of teachers has increased 
only fifteen per cent, during the last year, the amount paid for 
teachers' salaries has increased sixty per cent. 

The amount of school revenue from all sources has been in- 
creased, since 1863, $2.58 per census child. 

The amount expended for schoolhouses shows an increase over 
1863 of $164,000. 

While the number of children between 4 and 18 years of age 
has increased 26 per cent, since 1863, the average number belong- 
ing to public schools has increased in the same time 46 per cent. 
During the last year the increase of census children was 9^ per 
cent. , and of pubHc school attendance 16 per cent. 

Tlie number of free schools has been increased seventy-eight in 
two years, and more than half the public school children are now 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 



45 



relieved from rate bills, while the remainder pay an average tuition 
fee of twenty-five cents a month. 

A careful examination of the full statistical tables submitted in 
this report, will show a great advance in all that relates to the ma- 
terial progress of the schools. 

But there is a vital and intangible aspect which no statistics can 
exhibit. 

The stronger hold which the schools have taken on public opin- 
ion; the greater skill, earnestness, and ability of teachers; the im- 
provement in methods of instruction and classification; the greater 
interest and enthusiasm of pupils, consequent ui^on the introduction 
of better books; the greater interest of parents; the civilizing agency 
of well-conducted schools in all the little communities of the State — 
these cannot be exj)ressed in figures nor conveyed in words. 

California has taken her place in the front rank with those States 
whose material prosperity has been the result of public schools ; and 
it is the duty of every legislator and every statesman to strengthen 
and perfect a system of schools which shall educate a race of men 
and women for the next generation that shall inherit, with the 
boundless resources of the Golden State, something of the energy, 
enterjDrise, talent, character and intelligence which have settled and 
civilized it. 

The following are some of the main topics treated of iu this 
report : 



"What our Public Schools have Cost. 

Kchool Property. 

Comparative Cost of Public and Private 

Schools. 
Comparison with other States. 
Cities and Riual Districts. 
School Children. 
Length of Schools. 
Teachers' Wages. 
Amendments to the School Law. 
Course of Study. 
Boards of Examination. 
School Libraries. 
Teachers and Trustees. 
National Bureau of Education. 



State Agricultural College. 

County School Tax. 

County Institutes. 

School Visits. 

State Institutes. 

Methods of Teaching. 

Course of Study for Ungraded Schools. 

Common Sense in Teaching. 

Physical Training. 

Moral Training. 

The Bible in the Schools. 

School Discipline. 

Corporal Punishment. 

State Normal School. 

Public Schools and Taxation . 



This report closed as follows : 

I am reluctant to close this long and complicated report of details 
and statistics, necessary to be made, and yet from their character, 
tiresome to most except school officers and teachers, without a final 
appeal to the legislators who will be called upon to act on its sug- 
gestions and recommendations. 

Previous to the lessons taught us by the great war just closed — 
in suffering, and doubt, and blood, and tears — the great fundamental 
truths of our school system had grown to be glittering generalities 
for gracing political speeches or governors' messages. These truths 
are now felt as a solid reality by the States on the other side of the 
continent; and under all the burdens of their debts, incurred iu 



46 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

saving the nation, they are striving to make their public schools 
more effective by more liberal provisions for their support. I am 
painfully conscious that our schools, while accomplishing something, 
fall far short of the great work which is pressing upon them. They 
need both judicious legislation for their government and liberal tax- 
ation for their support. It is a matter of deej) regret to all thinking 
men, that some of our citizens who represent the greatest wealth of 
the community are engaged in a crusade against taxation for the 
support of schools, and are waging their warfare under the hue and 
cry of extravagance, for the purpose of exciting the prejudices of 
the people. 

LIBERALITY IS ECONOMY. 

Liberality in educating the people is the true economy of States. 
What would be extravagance in one individual, whose life is limited 
to a few years, is economy in the life of a State or nation; what 
would be economy in a single man, is meanness in a State. This 
generation is not living for itself alone, but for future generations 
and for the future greatness of the nation. We have those among 
us who, to save from each dollar they call their own, a tax of one 
one-hundredth of one per cent., would make serfs of the next gen- 
eration by leaving the children to grow up in ignorance; who think 
intelligence, cultivation, refinement, honor, integrity, morality, 
religion and patriotism among common people — the working classes 
— are myths; that the only thing tangible is real estate, and the 
great object of life is to escape taxation. Pviblic schools are 
synonymous with taxation; they represent taxation, and the sooner 
the "common people" understand this democratic-republican doc- 
trine the better for the State, the better for property, the better for 
mankind, the better for the nation. There is altogether too much 
of this whining about taxation for the support of schools. Where 
would the nation have been to-day but for public schools ? Who 
fought our battles in the last war, but the men who were drilled 
into patriots in public schools supported by taxation ? Last year 
the nation paid $22,000,000 for the support of schools; what true 
statesman wishes it had been less ? The public schools are the 
educators of the working men and women of the nation, and they 
are the producers of all the wealth which is protected by law. The 
schools mold the characters of the men whose will, expressed 
through the ballot-box, makes and unmakes constitutions, and 
breathes life into all laws. 

I appeal to legislators, when the school bill comes before them, 
to bear in mind that in providing for schools, a liberal expenditure 
is, in the end, the truest econom}'; and when the cry of taxation is 
urged against any reasonable and necessary appropriations, to 
remember this great truth, so well expressed by Horace Mann: " In 
our country and in our times no man is worthy the honored name 
of statesman who does not include the highest practicable education 
of the people in all his plans of administration. He may have 
eloquence, he may have a knowledge of all history, diplomacy, 
jurisprudence — and by these he might claim in other countries the 
elevated rank of statesman; but, unless he speaks, plans and labors, 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 47 

at all times and in all places, for the culture and edification of the 
whole people, he is not, he cannot be, an American statesman. 



31. SECOND BIENNIAL REPORT, 1866-67. 
This report opens with the following statement of progress : 

The school year ending June 30, 18G7, marks the transition 
period of California from rate-bill common schools to an American 
free school system. 

For the first time in the history of the State, every public school 
was made entirely free for every child to enter. 

In the smaller districts, having less than 100 children and less 
than $200,000 taxable property, free schools were maintained three 
months; in the larger districts, having more than 100 children and 
$200,000 taxable property, free schools were kept open jive monUis. 

More than 21,000 pupils attended /ree schools during the entire 
school year of ten months. 

FREE SCHOOLS AT LAST. 

I am glad that in this, my last official report, I can say that 
a system oi free schools, supported by taxation, is an accomplished 
fact. 

When I assumed the duties of this office, five years ago, I saw 
clearly that it was useless to expect to improve the character of the 
public schools to any considerable extent without a largely in- 
creased school revenue, derived from direct taxation on propert}'. 

At the session of the Legislature in 1863, I secured a revision of 
the School Law, and a State school tax of five cents on the hundred 
dollars, which gave an additional revenue to the State Fund of 
$75,000 a year. A bill was also passed providing for the gradual 
funding of the indebtedness of the State to the School Depart- 
ment, then amounting to $000,000. At the next session, in 1864, 
an additional school revenue was secured by providing that the 
minimum county school tax should be equal to $2 per census child. 
This little clause gave an additional county school revenue of 
$75,000. 

In 1866, by the passage of the " Kevised School Law," the State 
school tax was raised to eight cents on the hundred dollars, and 
the minimum county tax was raised equal to $3 per census child, 
both provisions together increasing the school revenue by at least 
$125,000 a year. I need not say that to secure an additional school 
revenue of $300,000 per annum, in the face of the high county, 
State, and National taxation, during a period of civil war, was no 
holiday task. 

During each successive session of the Legislature I became a 
j)ersistent member of the "Third House," arguing, soliciting, meet- 
ing committees, and patiently waiting, with a determination to 
secure for every child in California a right guaranteed by law to an 
education in a system of free schools based upon the proposition 
that the property of the State ought to be taxed to educate the 
children of the State. 



48 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

I saw clearly at the outset that even after the revenue was pro- 
vided, the schools would be to some extent a failure, unless pro- 
tected from incompetent teachers by a thorough system of State 
examinations and certificates, for the schools cannot rise higher 
than the teachers, 

PKOFESSIONAL TEACHERS. 

The second leading object of my administration has been to se- 
cure a corps of professional teachers, and to elevate the occujDation 
of teaching. How far this has been accomplished, the list of pro- 
fessional teachers, and the graduates of the Normal School, found 
in this report, Avill show. 

One third of the teachers in the State hold State dijjlomas and 
certificates, and one twelfth of the teachers are graduates of the 
California State Normal School. 

A State Board of Education, of Examination, of Normal School 
Trustees; a uniform series of text-books, a course of study, rules 
and regulations, an educational journal — all constitute a system of 
education, in place of the irregular and unsystematized half public 
and half rate-bill schools of five years ago. 

THE REVISED SCHOOL LAW. 

Early in the session of 18G5-66, the State Superintendent sub- 
mitted a series of amendments to the Senate Committee on Edu- 
cation. 

The amendments were so extensive that the committee referred 
the entire law to the Superintendent for revision. The law, as 
drafted by me, was submitted to the committee and adopted, with 
a few slight changes. 

The more important improvements effected in the School Law by 
the first revision in 1863, and the second revision in 18G5, may be 
briefly summed up as follows: 

1. Organizing a State Board of Education of nine members. 

2. Organizing a Board of State Normal School Trustees of eight 
members. 

3. Authorizing the State Board of Education to adopt rules and 
regulations and a course of study for pi;blic schools. 

4. Authorizing the State Board to adopt a uniform State series of 
text-books. 

5. Providing each school with a State School Register. 

6. Providing for the binding and preservation of school docu- 
ments in the State and county departments of instruction. 

7. Providing that the Legislature shall furnish the State Superin- 
tendent with at least two thousand copies of each biennial report 
for distribution among school ofiicers and libraries. 

8. Requiring the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to 
visit schools and lecture at least three months each year, and pro- 
viding for the payment of actual traveling expenses. 

9. Establishing County Teachers' Institutes, and providing for the 
payment of necessary expenses out of the County School Fund. 

10. Funding the debt of the State to the School Fund. 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 49 

11. Enlarging the powers and duties of County Superintendents, 
in details too numerous to mention. 

12. Payment of County Boards of Examination. 

13. Postage and Expressage Fund for County Superintendents. 

14. Increasing the salaries of County Superintendents. 

15. Authorizing County Superintendents to equalize district 
boundaries. 

16. The election of Trustees for a term of three years instead of 
one. 

17. Requiring the District Clerk to furnish the schools with 
pens, ink, stationery, and school incidentals, at the expense of the 
district. 

18. The establishment of graded schools. 

19. Providing for the legal establishment of separate schools for 
children other than white children. 

20. Limiting the school time of children under eight years of age 
to four hours a day, exclusive of intermissions. 

21. Establishing a system of school libraries by the reservation 
of ten per cent, of the State School Apportionment. 

22. Authorizing a State subscription for an educational journal — 
two copies for each school district, one for the District Clerk, and 
one for the school library. 

23. Life diplomas for teachers. 

24. State educational diplomas, valid for six years; and first, 
second and third grade State certificates. 

25. Establishing City Boards of Examination. 

26. Authorizing the State Board to issue State certificates on 
county examinations with the State series of questions. 

27. Authorizing the State Board to recognize the Normal School 
dij^lomas of other States. 

28. Requiring all Boards of Examination, whether State, city or 
county, to be composed exclusivel}^ of professional teachers who 
are holders of State diplomas, or first grade city or county cer- 
tificates. 

29. A State tax of eight cents on each $100 of taxable projoerty. 

30. Requiring a minimum county school tax of $3 per census child, 
and increasing the maximum tax to 35 cents on each ^100. 

31. Authorizing and requiring School Trustees to levy a district 
school tax sufficient to keep a free school five months in a year. 

32. Changing the school year to correspond with the State fiscal 
year, July 1 to June 30. 

AVERAGE LENGTH OF SCHOOLS. 

The average length of time during which j)ublic schools are main- 
tained during the year is 7.2 months. Last year, for the first time 
in the history of the State, all the schools were kept free to all 
pupils for a period of from 3 to 5 months, according to the num- 
ber of children and the taxable propert}^ in the district. 

It marks an epoch in the school history of the State. Had rate 
bills been levied as before, during the entire year, the average 
length of the term of tuition in the schools would doubtless have 
been increased. 



50 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

The death-blow to rate bills has been given, and they will soon 
be among the things of the past. 

Last year 21,200 pupils attended schools which were kept open 
and entirely free for 9 and 10 months in the year. 

10,000 more attended schools which were entirely free, but were 
kejDt open less than 9 months. 

The number of schools maintained from 3 to 6 months was 387; 
from 6 to 9 months, 281; and from 9 to 10 months, including San 
Francisco as 208 schools of 60 children each, 422. 

SALARIES OF TEACHERS. 

The average monthly salaries of males teachers is $77; of female 
teachers, $64. 

As the average length of schools is 7.2 months, the average an- 
nual salar}^ of male teachers is $554; of female teachers, $460. 

Even if teachers were employed for the whole school year of 10 
months, which is the case only in the city schools, the average an- 
nual salary of a male teacher would be only $770 a year, from which 
deduct $300 for twelve months' board at $25 per month, and there 
would remain only $470 as the net proceeds of a year's work. De- 
duct from this $100 for clothing, and the salary stands at $370. 

Trustees in some parts of the State who complain that the salaries 
of teachers are too high, and that school expenditures are extrava- 
gant, will do well to consider these figures. 

The admission of teachers into the occupation is virtually in the 
hands of the teachers in this State now engaged in teaching. Ele- 
vate the standard of admission, and the occupation will soon become 
a respectable business. It will soon be better paid than brute 
labor. No occupation is more laborious; none wears out muscle and 
brain faster. It is only in the vigor of early manhood that a man 
can follow his profession. Shall he, then, be paid no more than 
the mechanic, or the day-laborer who shovels sand on the streets? 
The brain labor of the skillful teacher ought to be as well paid as 
the brain labor of the lawyer, the phj'sician, the clergyman, the 
editor. He ought to dress as well and live as well. His profession 
ought to cost him, and often does, as much time and money as 
other professions. He ought to be paid a salary sufficient to enable 
him to supply himself with a library, and the periodical literature 
of the day. He should have a salary sufficient to enable him to live 
respectably, dress neatly, and move in the intelligent circles of so- 
ciety like other educated men. He should be paid enough to sup- 
port a family. Teachers well j)aid can devote all their time and 
energies to the schools. The}' are not greater philanthropists than 
their neighbors whose children they educate. None of them teach 
from pure love of teaching. They do their duty, and expect their 
pay for it; it is the way in which they earn their living. They 
ought not to be expected to break mental bread to the children of 
others and feed their own with stones. Good teachers are not 
to be estimated by their daily salary of five dollars. Persons 
enough could be fovind in the State at half the present rates, but 
the people would be the losers. It is the teachers who give char- 
acter and efficiency to the schools. The State may legislate, the 



AND SCHOOL EEPORTS. 51 

people may vote taxes, and build scboolhouses, but the teachers 
build schools, and mold character, and act on mind. High sala- 
ries will attract talent and skill, and hold them both in the schools. 
Low wages Avill fill the schools with bunglers, and waste the public 
money. If the people of California desire to lay well the founda- 
tions of the State for all future time, they must employ skilled 
master-masons to hew the corner-stones. 

SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 

The school library system provided b}^ the School Law of 1866 
is in successful operation. 

It was established in accordance with my recommendation in the 
biennial rej^ort for 1865, as follows: 

After studying the plans of other States, and considering the i 
subject in every possible relation, I have come to the conclusion 
that the following plan is the most practicable one which can at 
present be carried into effect in this State: 

It should be made the duty of the County Superintendent in 
each count}' to annually set apart ten per cent, of the State appor- 
tionment of school moneys to each district, provided ten per cent, 
does not exceed fifty dollars, and to cause it to be held b}' the 
County Treasurer, as a District School Library Fund; and it should 
be the dut}' of Trustees to expend this fund for library books, pro- 
vided that when the amount is less than ten dollars the sum maj 
remain in the treasury until, together with subsequent apportion- 
ments, it shall amount to that sum. 

It should be made the duty of the State Board of Education to 
prepare an extended list of books suitable for school libraries, and 
from the published list Trustees should make all their selections 
for purchase. Such a provision would protect the libraries from 
trash literature and useless books. The Trustees should be made 
librarians, with power to make the teacher a deputy. 

RELIGIOUS EXERCISES IN SCHOOL. 

The report treats at length on the vexed question of religious 
exercises, and Bible-reading in school. A few items read as 
follows : 

The Constitution of California (Art. 1, Sec. 4) provides that " the 
free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, 
without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed in 
this State." 

Section 60 of the Eevised School Law, reads as follows: 
" No books, tracts, papers, catechisms, or other publications of a 
sectarian or denominational character, shall be used or distributed 
in any school, or shall be made a part of any school library; neither 
shall any sectarian or denominational doctrine be taught therein; 
and any school district, town or city, the officers of which shall 
knowingly allow any schools to be taught in violation of these pro- 
visions, shall forfeit all right to any State or county apportionment 
of school moneys; and upon satisfactory evidence of such violation, 



52 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

the State Superintendent and County Superintendent shall "with- 
hold both State and county apportionment." 

Section 70 reads as follows: 

"It shall be the duty of teachers to endeavor to impress on the 
minds of their pupils the principles of morality, truth, justice, and 
patriotism; to teach them to avoid idleness, profanity, and false- 
hood; to instruct them in the principles of a free government, and 
to train them up to a true comprehension of the rights, duties, and 
dignity of American citizenship." 

The School Law, then, is silent as to whether or not a public 
school shall be opened by the reading of the Bible or by prayer. It 
does not exclude the Bible; it does not make the use of it compul- 
sory; it does not forbid the teacher from opening school with prayer; 
it does 2iot compel him to do it. It leaves the whole question to be 
decided by Boards of Education, Trustees, teachers, and the people, 
as their judgment may dictate. 

The present is an age of the largest and broadest personal liberty 
of religious opinion; the children of all classes are found in the com- 
mon schools; and school officers and teachers should manifest a ten- 
der regard for the religious scruples of both Jew and Gentile, Prot- 
estant and Catholic, and hold the schools free from any violation of 
the great principles guaranteed by the National and State Constitu- 
tions, that every man be left free to worship God as he pleases, and 
to teach his children his own religious faith. 

The great purpose of the common school is intellectual culture, 
as a foundation of moral and religious education; for without intel- 
ligence, religion degenerates into bigotry. It is left for the home, 
the Sunday-school, and the church, to teach forms of religious faith 
and worship. If each does its work without interference with the 
other, the result will be harmonious. If the church attempts to 
make the public school both a church school and a Sunday school, 
the result will be disastrous. 

CO-EDUCATION OF THE SEXES. 

I believe that the presence of boys and girls in the same school, 
far from being injurious to either sex, exerts a mutually beneficial 
influence. My belief is based on many years' experience in public 
school teaching, on an extended observation of schools, and on the 
opinion of the most enlightened and progressive educators. 

CONCLUSION. 

Since 1863, our public schools have been quietly and peacefully 
revolutionized. In the grand events of national history, in the 
building of cities, the construction of roads, the settlement of land 
titles, and the excitement of life incident to a new State, the prog- 
ress of schools is hardly noticed except by those who are most di- 
rectly interested in them. Then, we had little to be proud of in 
our educational record; 71010, California will not suffer by compari- 
son with the most progressive educa.tional States in the Union. 

Then, the annual amount of money raised for public schools was 
$480,000; now, it is $1,287,000, or nearly three times as much. 



AND SCHOOL REPOETS. 53 

TJien, there was no direct State tax for the support of schools; 
now, the State tax is 8 cents on the $100, giving an annual revenue 
from this source alone of $120,000. 

Then, the State apportionment was $130,000; noio, it is $260,000. 

Then, the amount raised by county and city school taxes was 
$294,000; noio, it is nearly $600,000. 

Then, the amount raised by district taxes, voted by the people, 
was $7000 ; last year the amount was §73,000, or more than ten 
times the amount raised in 1802. 

Tlien, the maximum county school tax allowed by law was 25 
cents, and the minimum required to be levied, nothing at all; noio, 
the maximum tax is 35 cents, and the minimum tax must be equal 
to $3 per census child, which in many counties requires the maxi- 
mum rate of 35 cents. 

Then, the amount raised by rate bills of tuition was $130,000 ; 
now, it is only $79,000, showing a rapid approximation to a free 
school system. Three-fourths of the pupils now attend free schools 
during the year, and all are secured by law the right of a free school, 
either for three months or five months, in proportion to the size of 
district. 

Then, the total expenditure for schools amounted to a percentage 
on the assessment-roll of the State, of 30 cents on each $100; now, 
it amounts to 58 j^^ cents on the $100. 

In 1862 the amount expended per census child was $6.15; last 
year it was $12.01. 

In 1862 the amount expended for schoolhouses was $49,000; in 
1865 it was $257,000. 

Then, the average length of the schools was less than six months 
in the year; noio, it is seven and four-tenths months — an average 
length of schools which is exceeded only by Massachusetts and 
Nevada, of all the States in the Union. 

Since then, while the number of census children has increased 
twenty-six per cent., the average number attending the public 
schools has increased more than fifty per cent. 

The stronger hold which the schools have taken on public opinion, 
the greater skill, earnestness and enthusiasm of teachers, the con- 
sequent improvement in methods of instruction and classification, 
the use of better text-books, the deeper personal interest of parents, 
the neater and more commodious houses — all these together con- 
stitute an advancement which cannot be expressed by a contrast of 
statistics. 

Then, we had no system of professional examinations, no educa- 
tional society, no organization, and little professional pride; in fact, 
a man generally apologized tor being forced to resort to teaching 
until he could find something else to do. 

EXAMINATION OF TEACHERS. 

Then, the "old schoolmasters" of San Francisco were examined 
every year by doctors, lawyers, dentists, contractors and business 
men, to " see if they were fit to teach the common school" they had 
been teaching years in succession. There was no standard of 
qualification, except the caprice of " accidental boards." Through- 



54 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

out the State, examinations were oral, and in most cases resulted in 
issuing to everybody who applied a certificate " to teach school one 
year; " noio, a new order of things prevails. Every Board of Exam- 
ination, whether State, city or county, must be composed of 
professional teachers exclusively; all examinations must be in 
writing, and in certain specified studies; and certificates are issued 
for life, or for a length of time proportioned to the grade of certifi- 
cate issued. 

California is the only State in the Union in which teachers have 
gained the legal right to be examined exclusively by the members 
of their own jDrofession, and we have just cause to be proud of the 
fact. It has already done much to make the occupation of teach- 
ing respectable. It has relieved good teachers from useless annoy- 
ance and humiliation; it has increased their self-respect, stimulated 
their ambition, and guarded the schools against quacks and pre- 
tenders. 

Our School Law is the only one in the United States which has 
taken broad, professional ground, by pi'oviding that the diplomas 
of State Normal Schools in other States shall entitle the holders to 
legal recognition as teachers in this State. 

Strange to say, this new sj'stem of professional examinations was 
violently opposed four j^ears ago, and by none so vehemently as by 
some common school teachers. 

The world moves. Is there a single teacher here who would 
desire to have the old order of things re-established? But I never 
doubted that, once established, it would remain a part of our 
school S3^stem as long as schools were maintained. 

It was my sanguine hope, for many years, that in this new State 
teaching might aspire to the dignity of a profession; that teachers 
might learn to combine their strength, respect themselves, com- 
mand the respect of others, and honor their occuiDatiou. I have 
lived already to see the promise of the future. It has been and is 
my highest ambition to elevate the profession of teaching; for I 
well know that in no other way can the public schools be made the 
great educators of the State and the nation. If the citizens of this 
State desire to have good schools, they must pay professionally 
trained teachers high salaries. 

It is only by raising the standard of attainments that the occupa- 
tion can become Avell paid and well respected. Set the standard 
high, and high wages will follow; set the standard high, and good 
schools will be the result; set the standard high, and teachers will 
be content to remain in the schools. 

Let all teachers who act on County, City or State Boards of Ex- 
amination, discharge their duty faithfully, without reference to the 
pressure of friends, or the complaints of unsuccessful apj^licants, 
ever bearing in mind the duty they owe to the schools, the j)eople, 
and the profession of teaching. 

Professionally trained teachers, well paid for their work, will 
bring the schools up to their fullest measure of usefulness, and will 
secure from the people the most liberal support. 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 55 

STATISTICS AXD REPORTS. 

Four years ago there was not a teachers' library in the State, 
except a few odd volumes in San Francisco. 

Now all the large counties have begun a central library, and 
some of them have quite extensive ones. 

We have a course of study, established by law, by means of which 
teachers are enabled to pursue an intelligent system of instruction, 
in sjDite of the prejudices of those parents who are too ignorant to 
comprehend the purpose of a school. 

We have judicious rules and regulations, established by law, to 
aid teachers in enforcing discipline and order. In no other State is 
the authority of the teacher so well established and defined by law. 
Every district school in the State is placed under a judicious system 
of general rules and regulations. 

Four years ago school statistics were notoriously unreliable; the 
records were kept without system, in old blank books or on scraps 
of paper, and often were not kept at all; now, every school is 
supplied with a State School Register, so simple in its style of book- 
keeping that the most careless teacher can hardly fail to keep a re- 
liable record. 

Tlien, Trustees wrote their orders to County Superintendents on 
scraps of paper, without much regard to business forms, and often 
without keejDing any accounts; now, the neat order-books, in the 
style of bank check books, furnished by the Department of In- 
struction, allow of no excuse for failing to keep a financial record 
of money paid out. 

In 1862, 150 copies of the report of the Superintendent were 
allowed to the ofiice of the State Superintendent for distribution; 
now, 4,000 copies are published, and the law requires that a copy 
shall be sent to each Board of Trustees, each school library, each 
County Superintendent, and that 250 copies shall be bound for dis- 
tribution to the School Departments of other States. 

SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 

Then, there were no school libraries; now, a library is begun in 
every school district, and a liberal provision is made for their en- 
largement by a reservation of ten per cent, of the State School 
Fund annually. 

The influence of a library in school is second only to that of the 
teacher; and, in many instances, the information self-gleaned by 
the pupils from books, is the most valuable part of their common 
school education. Books will give them a taste for reading, make 
them alive to knowledge, and start them on a jolan of self-culture 
through life. A teacher may fail in the discharge of his duty, but 
the influence of good books is sure and lasting. 

Then, most of the county schools were destitute of inaps, charts, 
and globes; now, most of them are supplied. 

Then, all school incidentals, such as pens, pencils, ink, and sta- 
tionery, were furnished by the pupils themselves, and as a conse- 
quence, half of the children were generally without these indis- 
pensable articles; now, they are furnished by the district to the 
pupils, free of expense. 



56 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 



PROGRESS. 



When "we consider the generally depressed condition of business 
in the State during the past four years; the heav}' losses during 
the mining stock mania; the losses by flood and drought; the 
gradual working out of placer mines, and the consequent deprecia- 
tion of property in many i^laces; the falling off in the trade of many 
mining towns; the unsettled condition of land titles in many of the 
agricultural sections, and consequently the unsettled condition of 
the people; the slow increase of jDopulation from immigration, and 
at times its actual decrease in consequence of attractive mines in 
neighboring territories, and the slow increase of taxable property — 
we have reason to be proud of the unexampled progress of our 
common schools. 

In the great work of settling and civilizing a new State — in the 
building of cities, the construction of railroads, the cultivation of 
farms, the development of quartz mines, the beginning of manu- 
factures, and all the varied branches bf industry — the influence of 
schools is lost sight of in the figures of material statistics; and it is 
only when we consider that the 50,000 children now in the schools, 
during the next twenty jears will take their place in society as the 
workers and producers, that we begin to realize the latent power of 
the schools. They are silently weaving the network of mental and 
moral influences which underlie civilization; and when the children 
shall become the masters of the material wealth of the State, the 
influence of the schools will begin to be evident. 

We are apt to consider immediate results rather than their re- 
mote causes; and hence the power of the public schools is seldom 
fully realized. 

Light, heat, and electricity build up the material life of the 
globe out of inorganic matter, 3'et so slowly and silently that we 
hardly observe the workings of their subtle agencies. So the 
schools act upon societ}', and organize its life out of the atoms of 
undeveloped humanity attracted to the schoolrooms. 

A few weeks since I visited one of the great quartz mills in the 
interior of the State. I descended the deep shaft, where stalwart 
men were blasting and delving in solid rock. Above, the magnifi- 
cent mill, with fifty stamps, like some gigantic monster, was crush- 
ing and tearing the white quartz with its iron teeth; and I saw the 
immediate result of all this work in the heavy bars of pure gold, 
all ready to be stamped with their commercial value, and to enter 
into the great channels of trade. Then I entered a public school 
a few rods distant, where a hundred children were sitting, silently 
learning their lessons. I realized the relation of the mill and mine 
to the material prosperity of the State; but the school, what did it 
yield ? 

I rode over the line of the Central Pacific Railroad from the 
springtime of Sacramento into the snowy winter of the Sierra, and 
I saw the beginning of the great commercial aorta of a continent. 
On its cuts, and embankments, and rails, and locomotives, more 
money had already been expended than has been paid for schools 
since the history of our State began. I could see the tangible re- 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 57 

suits of tlie labor expended upon the road; but where should I 
look for the value received to balance the cost of the schools? 
After thundering down on its iron rails from the mountain sum- 
mits, I stepped into the Sacramento High School, and I thought to 
myself: What are these boys and girls doing, comjiared with the 
men who are paving the great highway of a nation ? 

I go out into the streets of this great city; I hear everywhere the 
hum of industry; I see great blocks of buildings going up under 
the hands of busy mechanics; I see the smoke of the machine-shops 
and foundries, where skillful artisans are constructing the marvelous 
productions of inventive genius; I see the clipper ships discharging 
their cargoes; drays are thundering over the pavement; the banks 
are open, and keen-sighted capitalists are on 'Change; and when I 
go to visit some little schoolroom, where a quiet woman is teaching 
reading and spelling to the little children, the school seems to be 
something distinct from the busy life outside. 

A short time ago I saw that ocean leviathan, the "Colorado," 
swing majestically out into the stream, amid the shouts of thou- 
sands of assembled spectators, and glide off through the Golden 
Gate, to weave a network of commercial interests between the Occi- 
dent and the Orient; and when, a few days after, I stood in the 
Lincoln Schoolhouse, where a thousand boys were reciting their 
lessons, I asked: What are they doing for the city in return for 
$125,000 invested in the house, and $20,000 a year paid to the 
teachers? The steamship comes back with its j^asseugers and 
freight, and makes its monthly returns of net profits; but when 
will the school show its balance-sheet ? 

But when I pause to remember that the steam engine was once 
but a dim idea in the brain of a boy; that intelligence is the motive 
power of trade and commerce; that the great cit}', with banks and 
wai'ehouses, and princely residences, has been built up by intelli- 
gent labor; that in the construction and navigation of the ocean 
steamer so many of the princijDles of art and science must be 
applied — I see in the public school, with its busy brains, an engine 
mightier than one of steam; and the narrow aisles of the schooi- 
room broaden into the wide and thronged streets of the great city. 
I know that the school-boys will soon become workers; that one 
will command the steamship, and one will become the engineer; 
one will be a director of the Central Pacific Railroad, and one will 
ride over it to take his seat in the Senate of the United States; one 
will own the quartz mill; another will build the machinery, and 
another still will invent some improved method of working its ores; 
one will be the merchant who shall direct the channels of trade; 
one will be the president of the bank, and another shall frame laws 
for the protection of all those varied interests — and the teacher, 
whose occupation seemed so disconnected from the progress of 
human affairs, becomes a worker on mind which shall hold the 
mastery over material things. 

CONCLUSION. 

I sought the office for the purpose of raising the standard of pro- 
fessional teaching and for organizing a State system of free schools. 
I am willing to leave the verdict to the future. 
4 



58 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

If, when my present term of office expires, I fall back into the 
ranks as a private, I shall feel proud of pij profession, for I hold 
none more honorable, and to it I expect to devote my life. 

I love the State of my adoption; I am proud of her educational 
record. I hope to see California as distinguished for her common 
schools, her colleges, her institutions of learning, as she has been 
for the enterprise of her peojDle and the mineral wealth of her 
mountains. 

I feel that her future prosperity is closely related to the education 
of her people, for the solid wealth of any State consists in educated 
and industrious men and women; and if the common schools are kept 
up to the full measure of their usefulness, her future glory will be 
not so much in her mines, her scenery, or her climate, as in the 
intelligence, integrity, moralit}', and patriotism of a people that 
shall make wealth a servant of science, art, literature, and religion. 



32. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1868-69. 

The only change made in the School Law at this session was 
a slight increase in the maximum rate of district tax voted by 
the people. The law requiring teachers to take the oath of 
allegiance was repealed. A local bill was passed, providing 
that the City Superintendent of Common Schools in San Fran- 
cisco should be appointed by the Supervisors and Board of 
Education, instead of being elected by the people, to take 
effect in two years. A bill was passed to provide for organizing 
a State University. 

33. THIRD BIENNIAL REPORT, 1868-69. 

Superintendent Fitzgerald's first report opened as follows : 

AVhen I entered upon the duties of State Superintendent two 
years ago, the situation was peculiar. It was just after an exciting 
political canvass. The wildest surmises and most absurd apprehen- 
sions were indulged in on the one hand, and the most extravagant 
expectations entertained on the other. 

My first official utterance reaching the general public was in my 
address before the State Teachers' Institute, held in San Francisco, 
June, 18G8. In that address I declared that I had no partisan, sec- 
tional or sectarian ends to accomplish; that our public schools 
were not to be considered as either Democratic or Republican, 
Northern or Southern, Protestant or Catholic; that all parties were 
taxed alike for their sujDport, and therefore had equal rights and 
should be treated with equal respect. 

This report touched upon the topics of "Objects of Educa- 
tion," "School Trustees," "Examinations," "State Normal 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 59 

Scliool," "State and County Institutes," "Attendance," "Fe- 
male Teachers," "Evening Schools," "Politics in the Public 
Schools," "San Francisco Industrial School," "Uniformity of 
Text-Books," ''The California Teacher;' "The Institution of 
the Deaf and Dumb and Blind," "The State University," and 
"Cosmopolitan Schools." » 

It closes as follows : 

This exhibit cannot fail to inspire every good citizen with pride, 
gratification, and hope. It gives assurance that, while our State is 
evidently about to enter upon a fresh career of material development 
and prosperity, we have abundant reason to hope that it is destined 
to a progress equally rapid in the development of the higher inter- 
ests of education. For what has been done, I take no credit to my- 
self. I only claim that I have earnestly tried to do my duty. 



34. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1870. 

The first legislation of this session was the repeal of the law 
passed in 1868-9, in relation to the appointment of the City 
Superintendent of Public Schools in San Francisco. The bill 
continued the former Superintendent, James Denman, in office 
for one year, and then made the Superintendent elective at the 
next general election. The original purpose of this law thus re- 
pealed was to take the office "out of politics." 

The "Kevised School Law" was re-enacted under the title of 
the "California School Law," but was not changed in any of its 
main features. 

The sections relating to rate-bills were stricken out, being no 
longer needed ; the State Normal School was taken from the 
hands of the State Board of Education and placed under the 
control of a Board of Normal School Trustees, appointed by 
the Governor; and a provision was made authorizing the County 
Superintendents to fix the rate of county school tax, which was 
carried into effect in only three or four counties, and was after- 
wards pronounced unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. 

• TEXT-BOOKS. 

The original provision for uniformity exteuded only to country 
districts, all incor])orated cities and towns having special Boards 
of Education being independent. The law was amended so as to 
compel San Francisco and other cities to adopt the State series 
of text-books. 



60 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

In 1869 the State Board of Education had made a sweeping 
change of all the school-books in previous use. 

The State tax was increased to 10 cents on each hundred 
dollars. 

35. FOURTH BIENNIAL REPORT, 1871-72. 

The last report of Superintendent Fitzgerald opened as fol- 
lows: 

During- no period in the history of California has more steady 
and substantial progress been made in popular education than the 
two years since the last biennial exhibit was made by the Depart- 
ment of Public Instruction. This progress has been realized in 
spite of an unusual and general depression in business, resulting 
from various exceptional causes, and a consequent temporary check 
upon immigration and material prosperity. 

Great educational enterprises have been successfully inaugurated, 
abuses have been corrected, important and necessary reforms have 
been made, antagonisms have been reconciled, and a course of 
policy initiated that, with the united and earnest efforts of the true 
friends of popular education, will at a very early day culminate in 
the attainment of what every good citizen of California must desire 
■ — a public school system that will furnish the fullest advantages 
of an English education to every child in the State. 

The State is growing, and its educational development keeps pace 
with its growth in wealth and population. The increase in the 
number of public school children is more than 20 per cent; in two 
years. The increase in the value of school property is about 
20 per cent, for the same period. 

This large increase in the number of children attending the 
public schools is evidence of their growing popularity. A just and 
liberal administration of j^ublic school affairs has won the confidence 
and elicited the support of all classes to a gratifjdng extent. This 
can be claimed by me in behalf of my co-officials in the Department 
of Public Instruction throughout the State, without any reservation. 
The friends of education have worked together in perfect harmony, 
and rapid progress has been the result. 

The enormous amount added to the value of school propertj^ let 
it be noted, is the result of voluntary taxation, voted directly by the 
people themselves. This fact furnishes the most conclusive proof 
of the deep interest felt by the citizens of California in the educa- 
tion of their children, and affords a guarantee that they will cor- 
dially sustain an}' judicious measures that may be presented for the 
further improvement of our school system. * 

AN INCREASE OF STATE SCHOOL TAX. 

While in our centres of wealth and jDopulation the children have 
the advantage of a full school year's instruction, with the best 
facilities for learning, truth compels the confession that for the 
more remote and sparsely settled districts of the State our present 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 61 

system is shamefully inadequate, and is but a pretense for popular 
education. Under the present system, many districts can maintain 
schools only from three to six months of the year. No one need be 
told that such fragmentary bits of instruction are only a little better 
than none at all. During these short school terms, the pupils of 
such schools only get fairly started in their studies to be turned out 
for the greater part of the year, forgetting what little they had 
learned, and then coming back after this long and ruinous in- 
terval to commence again at the former starting-place, at the foot 
of the hill of knowledge, under a new teacher— the old one having 
sought a new place rather than attempt to live on the hope of 
another three or six months' school next jeav. This is but a sham, 
a waste of the public money, and a flagrant injustice toward a por- 
tion of the children of the State. There are very many of these 
schools thus revolving year after year on the axis of a defective sys- 
tem, making some motion, but scarcely any real progress. In a 
State sj^stem of public instruction should not all the children of 
the State be treated alike.? As a good mother, she should dispense 
the blessings of education with an equal hand. The remedy for 
this great evil and injustice is obvious: Let all tlie property of the 
State be taxed to educate all the children of the State. This is the 
chief point that should now engage the attention of those intrusted 
with the management of our public schools. The public mind is 
prepared to welcome legislation for this purpose. The people are 
ready to sustain any practical measure that will give them a thor- 
ough instead of a partial public school system. The principle in- 
volved is already recognized in our present school law. The ten 
per cent, ad valorem State school tax is an unequivocal recognition 
of the principle that the property of the whole State may be taxed 
for the benefit of all parts of the State. All that is needed, there- 
fore, is the extension of the practical application of the principle. 
If it be (/bjected that the taxation of all the property of the State 
for all the children of the State would be attended with inequality, 
some localities paying more than their proportion of taxes into the 
general school fund, the answer is, that according to the theory 
already adopted, the State is the educational unit, therefore it must 
act as a whole, and not partially, in disregard of the avowed theory 
on which our system is based. As a complete organism, the good 
of each iya.rt is the good of the whole State. There is a fallacy in 
the assumjition that the benefits of education are confined to the 
jDarticular individuals or localities directly alfected by the expendi- 
ture of the proceeds of local taxation. The benefits resultiug from 
the difi'usion of intelligence by means of education in the public 
schools affect the entire body politic. The dollar contributed by 
San Francisco judiciously expended in Plumas for education is no 
less a benefit to the former than to the latter. It is equally evident 
that the evils resulting from the prevalence of ignorance and vice 
in any neglected locality cannot be merely local evils. The virus 
will spread through the whole organism, and the results will be 
seen in the criminal courts, jails, hosi^itals, and insane asylums 
everywhere. If the State has the right to tax all her citizens equally 
to maintain State prisons, institutions for the insane, the deaf. 



62 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

dumb, and blind, and orphans, where is the wrong in imposing a 
tax for education for the whole State, that will lessen all those bur- 
dens resulting so largely and so directly from crime consequent 
ujion ignorance ? 

There is another asj^ect of this question that deserves considera- 
tion. The disabilities of the present system fall upon the frontier 
and thinly settled districts of the State. The result is that our 
hardy pioneers, who lead the march of American civilization, extend 
the area of freedom, subdue the wilderness, and incur the hard- 
ships and dangers of frontier life, are, as the reward of their enter- 
prise, energy, and courage, compelled to pay the penalty of seeing 
their children grow up in ignorance. Snch disability may in some 
cases he inevitable and invincible, but there are in California but 
few of these children of the border who are beyond the reach of 
the beneficent hand of the State. Justice and sound policy require 
that the poorest barefoot boy of the humblest citizen in the poorest 
district of the most impoverished county should have as abundant 
facilities for a common school education as the son of the richest 
citizen of the most opulent city in the State. The fundamental 
purpose of a public school system is to insure the education of all 
the children of the State. The chief recommendation of svich a 
system is that it secures the advantages of education to those who 
can be reached in no other way. If it fail in this it fails essentially 
to accomplish its highest end. Our system, then, is at present a 
partial failure. It is not the part of wisdom to ignore such a fact, 
looking only on the bright side of the j^icture. It is not honest. 
While singing the usual pseans of pi'aise to our public school sys- 
tem, and rejoicing, as we legitimately may, in its benefits, such 
facts as these remind us that we still fall far short of a perfect 
system, and that much work, wisely planned and earnestly exe- 
cuted, remains to be done. 

• 

The following are some of the leading topics of this report: 



State Text-Book System. 

Drawing. 

State and County Boards of Examiua- 

tiou. 
County Teachers' Institutes. 



State Normal School. 
School District Libraries. 
University of California. 
Against Compulsory Education. 
School Discipline — a New Departure. 



The following is the closing section of this report; 

During my term of office this department has been happily free 
from sectional animosities. I have uniformly deprecated the intro- 
duction of sectional prejudices into our public school literature and 
exercises, and I think I can safely appeal to my late official asso- 
ciates to j)rove that ni}' action has been consistent with my pro- 
fession. A Southern man by birth and education, I would not be 
willing to put into our schools any book that would tend tip excite 
or perpetuate hatred or contempt towards the Sovithern people. 
An American in feeling and principle, I would not be willing to put 
into our schools any book that did not inculcate love for our Avhole 
country. I would as zealously protect from insult or disparage- 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. G3 

ment any other portion of our land as tliat in which I happened to 
be born and reared. My official relation to the teachers of Cali- 
fornia gave me a better acquaintance with the men and women from 
different parts of our Republic, and the consequence has been a 
broadening of my ideas and an enlargement of the circle of my 
sympathies and attachments. I will never forget these lessons nor 
lose these sj^npathies. 

Knowing the teachers and school officers of California as 1 do, I 
lay aside the responsibilities and arduous labors of State Superin- 
tendent with a firm belief that the educational interests of the 
State are safe in their hands. Leaving all the various departments, 
of our educational work in vigorous operation and healthful devel- 
opment, I trust the next four years will bring uninterrupted prog- 
ress and increased prosperity. 



36. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1872. 

At this session there was no school legislation worth men- 
tioning. 

The Code Commissioners reported the Codified Statutes, in- 
cluding, of course, the School Law. The main features of the 
Revised School Law of 1866 remained intact, subject only to 
rearrangement and changes of phraseology. 

Among the minor changes was a provision excepting incorpo- 
rated cities from the action of "State uniformit}^" of text-books. 

An appropriation of $300,000 was made for erecting build- 
ings for the State University. 



37. FIFTH BIENNIAL REPORT, 1872-73. 

Superintendent Bolander's Report opens with an argument 
in favor of compulsory education, from which the following 
points are taken: 

To the question,' " What is this remedy?" only one answer can 
be given, or at least only one answer has thus far been found. Ad- 
mitted that education forms the only secure foundation and bulwark 
of a republican form of government, if not of every form of govern- 
ment; admitted that the universality of education becomes thus of 
vital importance to the State ; and admitted that the exigencies of 
the case not only empower but compel the State to provide all the 
facilities necessary to enable every child to acquire at least a com- 
mon, school education, and we are forced to the conclusion that it is 
not only the privilege, but the duty of the State, to compel every 
parent to bestow \ipon his children at least the education which the 
State places within his reach. 

Education is one of the primary conditions necessary to the very 



64 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

existence of a civilized government. This i3ro]30sition is so well 
established and universally acknowledged as to have become trite, 
and any further consideration of it, beyond its mere enunciation, is 
unnecessary. The extension and intensity of education in a nation 
will determine the degree of the nation's civilization, and the degree 
in which a nation's government is a governujent " for the people 
and by the peoj^le." This latter office of education has received the 
fullest recognition in the United States, and every State has de- 
clared its conviction that "knowledge and learning generally dif- 
fused through a community are essential to the preservation of a 
free government." 

The fundamental idea of government is -"the protection of society 
and its members, the security of proiDCi-ty and person, the adminis- 
tration of justice therefor, and the united efforts of society to fur- 
nish the means to authority to carry out these objects." The first 
means thus furnished to authority are the powers of prescribing and 
enforcing "rules of action" or laws, and to punish any infraction 
of these laws ; that is, to punish crime. But a still higher power 
than the mere defining and i^unishing of crime has been delegated 
by society to authority, namely, the power to prevent crime by di- 
minishing, and, if possible, removing altogether the causes of crime. 
Fear of jjunishment helps to repress crime, but only as far as detec- 
tion is quick and sure, and punishment swift and certain. The re- 
pressing or removing of the motives or temptations to commit crime 
not only rej^resses crime, but prevents crime by making its commis- 
sion impossible from its unreasonableness. 

"Illiteracy is incipient crime," or, as Dr. Lyman Beecher ex- 
presses it, " Uneducated mind is educated vice," Experience has 
given this proposition the force of an axiom in sociology. But 
there is not only a necessary direct relation between illiteracy and 
crime ; there is also a necessary direct relation between illiteracy 
and pauperism ; and as there is no less a necessary direct relation 
between pauperism and crime, we have crime once more as a result- 
ant — crime as a direct result of illiteracy; crime as an indirect result 
through the medium of pauperism, but no other ultimate result than 
crime. 

Hence, in every scheme of civilized government education has 
been recognized as the only force sufficient to diminish and remove 
the causes of crime. But education has another office. From the 
loss of supremacy in manufactures to the terrible downfall of a war- 
rior nation before a student nation, history teaches the lesson: Edu- 
cation is the first condition necessary to the prosperity of a nation. 

History teaches still another lesson : Education will be generally 
diffused only under a system of public schools; that is, under a sys- 
tem in which either the State by direct taxation raises the funds 
necessary to support for a definite length of time the schools needed 
to give every child a common school education, or the State compels 
the different municiiDalities to establish and maintain such schools. 
The American States have generally chosen the former alternative; 
thus testifjdng, in the most emphatic manner, that as the prosperity, 
nay, the very existence of the State, depends upon education, so 
education shall be the first and paramount care of the State. 



AND SCHOOL REPOKTS. 65 

The only time the people have had an opportunity to express 
their will, they have declared themselves overwhelmingly in favor 
of compulsory education. Since then the fearful increase of "hood- 
lumism " has made the question one of vital importance. And to 
save themselves from the rapidly increasing herd of non-producers, 
who must be supported by the community at large, to save them- 
selves from the wretches who prey upon society like wild beasts, 
some demand already that a law for compulsory education be 
supplemented by a law requiring the State to establish and maintain 
labor schools, school ships, industrial and technical schools. The 
times demand not only that children be educated in the common 
English branches, but, also', that children be educated how to work. 

Superintendent Bolauder treats at length on the necessity of 
increasing the State School Tax, and proposes a oninlmiim 
apportionment of $500 for each district, without regard to num- 
'bers; of the need of teachers trained in Normal Schools; and 
closes with the remark that — 

These two — long terms and qualified teachers — are the real 
educational forces of the State; and with them at our command, the 
prosperity, efficiency and usefulness of our common schools will be 
insured beyond peradventure. 



38. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1874. 

The only act of school legislation of any importance at this 
session, was the levying of a State school tax of $7 per school 
census child, and the apportionment of $500 as a minimum to 
each school or school district; the balance to Joe apportioned 
pro rata on the census children. 

TEXT-BOOKS. 

All the incorporated cities except San Francisco were placed 
under the law of State uniformity of test-books. 



39. SIXTH BIENNIAL REPORT, 1874-75. 

Superintendent Bolander's last report opens with the follow- 
ing summary of progress : 

Since my last report, 29,953 children have been added to our 
school population; 117 new school districts, supporting 322 schools, 
have been organized; 274 new schoolhouses have been built and 
furnished, and old schoolhouses refurnished, at a cost of $G13,- 
746.41; the school expenditures have been increased $544,885.09; 
the school property has increased in worth $1,011,262.85; the aver- 



66 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

• 
age school terms have been lengthened 1.33 months, being now 7.47 
mouths as against 6.14 months in 1873; 34 districts, as against 4G4 
in 1873, maintained school less than six months; 765 districts, as 
against 361 in 1873, maintained school more than six months; and- 
787 districts, as against 637 in 1873, maintained school eight months 
and over. 

In relief to this showing of our educational statistics, I must note 
a great advance in the number of first grade schools, i. e., high 
schools, grammar schools, and schools in which high school and 
^grammar grade studies are taught in addition to the lower grade 
studies; the greater number of teachers holding high grade certifi- 
cates; in the better salaries paid to lady teachers; in the greater 
amount of funds si^entfor school apj^aratus, one-half of our districts 
being now supplied, at least partly, with apparatus. Much remains 
yet to be done, however, in the ecpiipment of schoolhouses; for one- 
fifth of our districts have not yet even the outhouses demanded by 
decency; three-fourths of the districts have not siiitably improved 
school grounds; one-half of the districts do not furnish their schools 
with the necessary apjoaratus; and nearly one-half of the districts 
have not furnished their schoolrooms with improved furnitui'e. 

From July 1, 1866, to June 30, 1867, for the first time in the his- 
tory of the State, every public school was made entirel}' free for 
every child; and an important transition was thereby' marked iu 
popular education. But, though every public school was made free, 
the ways and means provided for the public schools, and the man- 
ner of apj^ortioning these means to the different districts, were for 
years such that only iu the centres of wealth and population the 
children had sufficient facilities for obtaining a good common school 
education, whilst in all other sections of the State the school system 
was but a pretense for popular education. The system went further, 
for in some cases it even thrust districts from without its pale. Hun- 
dreds of districts did not receive sufficient funds to maintain in 
every year the three months' school guaranteed by the Constitution 
to every district of the State. Up to June 30, 1874, districts whose 
number of census children fell below a certain figure — twenty for 
some counties, up to as high as thirty for others — did not receive for 
any one school year sufficient funds to maintain a three mouths' 
school for that year. 

Thanks to the last Legislature, however, for the school year 
ending June 30, 1875, and for the first time in the history of this 
State, every district received sufficient funds for not onl}^ a three 
months' school, but for at least a six months' school. The progress 
thereby made in popular education can hardly be overestimated. 
Short school terms — which, until last year have been the rule and 
not the exception in a majority of the districts of the State — place 
within the reach of our children only such fragmentary bites of 
instruction which are only a little better than none at all. Every 
system of popular education which does not insure to every district 
of the State at least an eight months' school every year, is but a 
sham. Long school terms are the ^ine qua non without which it is 
impossible to give our children the full measure of the amount and 
quality of education needed by them. Happily, the wise action of 



AND SCHOOL EEPOETS. 67 

the last Legislature lias secured to our schools this first factor in 
every successful system of pojjular education. The results of this 
action are patent. In 1873, only 43.3 per cent, of all the districts 
maintained an eight months' school; in 1875, this percentage is 
raised to 49.53; in 1872, over 464 districts, or 31.74 per cent., did 
not keep a six months' school; in 1875, the number has diminished 
to 34, or 2.15 per cent, of all the districts in the State. In other 
words, all but 34 districts maintained at least a six months' school. 

Superintendent Bolander condemned ' ' text-books " in unmeas- 
ured terms, spelling-books in particular. He says: 

In short, the board, and through it the State, must furnish 
each teacher with a Manual of Instruction. By this means we can 
dispense with several text-books, and reduce the bulk of the remain- 
ing text-books by rigidly excluding therefrom everything which 
appertains exclusively to the teacher's office. A text-book should 
be, what its name implies, a " book of texts." " The sermons are to 
be preached by the teacher — the book is to furnish the texts which 
are to be analyzed, developed, unfolded, explained, enlarged upon 
by the teacher — texts which need an exegesis to make them under- 
stood." 

The Manual of Instruction will furthermore point out to teachers 
the covirse of culture and technical training needed by them to 
qualify themselves for their work; in other words, it will prepare 
teachers for their work. Being no longer able to rely upon the 
text-book, teachers will be compelled to assimilate some method of 
teaching, and, in time, will then become real teachers, instead of 
mere school keeioers. 

TRAINED TEACHERS. 

For the purpose of securing professional teachers lie recom- 
mended the following plan : 

1. That in our State University be established a school or faculty 
of education with a four years course of stud}^; all students com- 
pleting and passing a satisfactory examination in the first year's 
course, to obtain a life certificate entitling them to teach any pri- 
mary or third grade school in the State; all students completing 
and passing a satisfactory examination in the second year's course, 
to obtain a life certificate entitling them to teach any school in the 
State not above the intermediate or second grade; all students com- 
pleting and passing a satisfactory examination in the third year's 
course, to obtain a life certificate entitling them to teach any school 
not above the grammar or first grade, and to be eligible to the 
office of City or County School Superintendent; all students com- 
pleting and passing a satisfactory examination in the four years 
course, to obtain a life diploma entitling them to teach in any school 
of the State, including high schools, normal and training schools, 
and the Educational College of the University, and making them 
furthermore eligible to the office of State Superintendent and in- 
structors of normal institutes. 



68 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

2. That the course of study of the State Normal School be con- 
formed to the one just sketched. 

3. That any high school or college, i:)rivate or public, be author- 
ized to establish a normal school department, with a partial or full 
course of study as prescribed for the Educational College of the 
University, provided that such department be taught only by 
graduates of the four years' course; that the course be the same as 
provided for the State Normal School, and that the students be ex- 
amined and certificated only by the faculties of the State Normal 
School and University. If such department be connected with a 
public institution, tuition to be free. 

4. That any City Board of Education, or County Board of Super- 
visors, be authorized to establish city or county normal schools, 
teaching partially, or in full, the course above mentioned, but their 
students to be examined and certificated only by the faculties of the 
State Normal School and University. 

His plan for the establishment of Normal Institutes was as 
follows : 

1. The present Teachers' Institutes and Boards of ]Uxamination 
are replaced by Normal Institutes! 

2. Normal institutes are to be held annually in such places as 
may be determined upon, either by statute or by authority con- 
ferred upon the State Superintendent or other officer or board. 

3. Every normal institute must be continued in session for not 
less than four weeks. It must be under the direction of a teacher 
who is known or proved to be a thorough normal school instructor; 
such teacher to be aj^pointed by the State Superintendent, or other 
officer or board, as ma}^ be deemed best. Each of the teachers en- 
gaged in the State Normal School or the Educational College of the 
University, must conduct annually at least one normal institute. 

4. Every applicant for a teacher's certificate must be present at 
the beginning of a normal institute; his admission as a member of 
the institute must be upon an examination like that required of 
applicants for admission into the State Normal School; he must 
attend the institute at least one full term; and must pass, at the 
end of the term, a satisfactory examination in thfe instruction given 
during the institute. 

5. The expenses of the institute are to be paid direct by the 
State, or from the unapportioned County School Funds of the 
counties comprising the district in which the institute is held. 

I have thus given the merest sketch of a system of normal insti- 
tutes which can easily and profitably be introduced into this State. 
From this sketch an appropriate system can readily be elaborated; 
but as so much depends upon the temper and view of the Legisla- 
ture, and its Committees on Education, it is preferable to leave 
such elaboration till the time when such committees can act upon 
the matter. 

He quoted extensively from various Avriters on "School 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 69 

Hygiene," ou " Teclmical Education" and " Kindergartens," 
and concluded as follows : 

I now retire from an office which I entered with a great deal of 
hesitancy and many forebodings. I brought to it many firm con- 
victions, the growth of a decade spent in the schoolroom; and 
according to these convictions have I labored to perfect our system 
of education; and I feel that I need not fear the verdict of the 
future. I have at least succeeded in equalizing somewhat the edu- 
cational facilities enjoyed by the districts of the State, and in 
rationalizing, in some measure, the system of instruction, and 
bringing it somewhat more in harmony with the "new education." 

The appendix contained a manual of suggestions for teaching 
the State course of study, including an exposition of the 
"Grube system " of teaching arithmetic to beginners, and a full 
course of elementary lessons in local geography, and botany. 
It contained also an explanation of the "Kindergarten," an 
essay on "The Nervous System as affected by School Life," by 
Dr. D. r. Lincoln, of Boston; a report of the State Board of 
Examination, of the State Normal School, of the Listitution for 
the Deaf and Dumb and Blind, and the rex^ort of the Eegents 
of the University. 

40. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1876. 

The first school legislation during the first week of the session, 
was a bill taking from the State Board of Education the power 
of changing text-books, it being evident that a majority of the 
board were in favor of throwing out McGuffey's series of Eead- 
ers, and Monteitli's series of Geographies. 

Mr. Carpenter, Speaker of the Assembly, introduced a bill 
providing for a State Board of Education, consisting of the 
Governor, State Superintendent and eight elective members, two 
from each congressional district; the board so elected to assume 
the powers of the State Board of Education, the Board of 
Eegents of the University, and the Trustees of the State Normal 
School. The bill also provided for abolishing State uniformity 
of text-books, and for giving boards of education and school 
trustees the power of local adoption. This bill passed the 
Assembly, but Avas defeated in the Senate. 

Mr. Hopkins introduced a bill providing for "county uniform- 
ity " in text-books, which passed both Houses but was pocketed 
by the Governor. 



70 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

The section relating to county certificates was amended so as 
to authorize county boards to issue second and third grade cer- 
tificates, on an examination in only the following studies: Arith- 
metic, Grammar, Geography, History, Reading, Writing, 
Si)elling and Methods of Teaching. 



41. LIST OF STATE SUPERINTENDENTS. 

John G. Marvin 1851-1854. 

Paul K. Hubbs .1854-1857. 

Andrew J. Moulder 1857-1863. 

John Swett 1863-1868. 

Eev. O. P. Fitzgerald 1868-1872. 

Henry N. Bolander 1872-1876. 

Ezra S. Carr 1876-1880. 

DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENTS. ^ 

J. H. Eickhoff. 1872-1876. 

Mrs. E. S. Carr 1876-1880. 

SUPERINTENDENTS AND POLITICS. 

John G. Marvin and Paul K. Hubbs were elected by the 
Democrats. 

Superintendent Moulder was twice elected on the Democratic 
ticket. He declined a nomination by the " Breckenridge " wing 
of the Democracy in 1862. * 

In the election of 1862 there were three tickets in the field, 
and the State Superintendent happened to be the only State 
officer to be elected. The opposing nominees were Col. Jona- 
than D. Stevenson, by the "Douglas Democrats;" Rev.O. P. Fitz- 
gerald, by the "Breckenridge Democrats;" John Swett, on the 
"Union Ticket." The vote stood as follows: Swett, 51,238; 
Stevenson, 21,514; Fitzgerald, 15,514. 

Superintendent Swett was re-elected on the Republican 
ticket in 1863 by about 20,000 majority over Dr. O. M. Wozen- 
craft, the Democratic nominee, and was renominated in 1867. 
The canvass was a bitter one on both sides. Rev. O. P. Fitz- 
gerald, the Democratic nominee, was elected by a majority of 
1401. 

Superintendent Fitzgerald was renominated in 1871, his op- 
ponent being Henry N. Bolander, nominated by the Repub- 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 71 

licans. The canvass was quite an exciting one, and resulted in 
the election of Bolander by 10,000 majority. 

In 1875 the opposing candidates were Eev. O. P. Fitzgerald, 
Democratic nominee, and Dr. Ezra S. Carr, Republican candi- 
date. This was also an abusive canvass. Dr. Carr wtis elected 
by a majority of 7000. 

It was expected that the office of State Superintendent would 
be "taken out of politics" by providing for the election at the 
special judicial election, but this measure only intensified the 
evil. 



SPECIAL HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO. 



I. SCHOOL REPORTS. 

The first school reports published in pamphlet form by the 
Board were those of Superintendent O'Grady, 1854 and 1855. 
The Superintendent reported the' average number of pupils to 
a teacher to be 87; that a uniform series of text-books had been 
adopted ; and that a Teachers' Association had been formed. 

Superintendent Theller in 1856 reported the following statis- 
tics : 

Teachers, 39; Pupils, 3347. 

District No. 1, Mr. Swett, Principal C83 

District No. 2, Mr. Denmau, Principal 580 

District No. 3, Mr. ElHs Holmes, Principal G35 . 

District No. 4, Mr. Ahira Holmes, Principal .... 733 

District No. 5, Mr. Carlton, Principal 374 

District No. 6, Mr. Morrill, Principal 200 

District No. 7, Mr. Macy, Principal 142 

3347 

In the Ward Schools there were educated 1421 pupils. The 
Male Dej^artments of the "Ward Schools were taught by male and 
female instructors, and the Female Department by the ladies of the 
different religious orders of the city, known as Sisters of Charity, 
Sisters of Mercy, and Sisters of the Presentation — all of whom had 
certificates of . capability, and were licensed to teach by the late 



72 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

County Commissioners of Education, and drew their salaries from 
the city, county and State educational fund. 

The school law of 1855 abolished the separation of the school 
fund, and all these schools have been mingled into one uniform 
system. Since the 5th of May last there has been no religious, sec- 
tarian or denominational doctrine taught in them. 

He reported the discipline good, and the instruction satis- 
factory. 

In fusing the "Ward Schools" with the public schools, the 
following additional teachers were elected : 

Principal of District No. 4, Wm. Hammill, vice Aliira Holmes; 
Principal of District No, 5, Mr. T. S. Dunne, vice Mr. Carlton; 
District No. 7, Mr. T. C. Leonard, vice Mr. Macy; New School, 
Thomas S. Myrick; District No. 8, Mr. H. P. Carlton. 

By the Consolidation Act, Mr. Pelton, who had been previ- 
ously elected as County Superintendent, was made, ex officio, 
City and County Superintendent for one year. 

His rejjort contained the first full statistical tables of the 
schools. He recommended the establishment of evening schools; 
of a Teachers' Institute ; the study of History of the United 
States; and published the "Course of Study." 

The reports of Superintendent Janes for 1857 and 1858 M^ere 
still more complete. 

He reported the weekly Normal School a success, teachers 
being compelled to attend ; recommended the establishment of 
more evening classes, and treated at length of discipline and 
methods; gave a short historical sketch of the early schools; 
treated of methods of teaching; complimented his predecessors 
in office; opposed May festivals; and reported favorably on the 
City Normal School, Mr. George W. Minns, Principal; Messrs. 
Myrick and Swett, assistants. 

Superintendent Denman's report, 1861, was longer than any 
preceding report. ♦ 

He summed up the improvements in 1860 as follows: 

1. Better Classification. 

2. The grading into Grammar and Primary Schools. 

3. Better accommodations and new buildings. 

4. New furniture. 

5. School Eegisters furnished by the Board. 

6. Monthly Eeports of pupils. 



AND SCHOOL EEPOKTS. 73 

The questions used in the examination for admission to the 
High School were given in this report. 

SUPERINTENDENT TAIt's REPORTS. 

The four reports of Superintendent Tait, 1862, '63, '64, and 
'65, were all creditable documents. In his first report, 1862, 
Mr, Tait reported a list of graduates of the Minus Evening 
Normal School — 16 for 1861, and 38 for 1862. He recom- 
mended that promotions in the primary grades be made semi- 
annually; that Principals be required to make monthly reports 
to the board of attendance, etc.; and that no person under 18 
years of age should be eligible to teach. 

In his last report, 1865, he advocated the reading of the 
Bible in school. 

Superintendent Pelton's report for 1867, recommended an 
increase of salaries; a simplification of the course of study, 
and the appointment of a Deputy Superintendent. 

cosmopolitan schools. 

Concerning the school, Mr. Pelton said: 

These schools of recent establishment are designed to afford the 
facihties for acquiring the modern languages — German, French, 
and Spanish — in connection with the ordinary English course. As 
elsewhere stated, it has been conceived that the object of our Pub- 
lic School s,Ystem, its true policy and leading idea, is to meet all 
reasonable educational demands. A few j'ears since a great num- 
ber of our citizens, native as well as foreign, were compelled to 
patronize private institutions, with their less perfect classification, 
and less thorough instruction, for the sake of the modern lan- 
guages, which by the more observing and thoughtful of our people 
are considered of greater importance in the ordinary vocations and 
positions of society than much, very much else included in the 
English course, especially in our advanced High School course. 
And there were many of our best citizens who were unable to meet 
the expense of private tuition for their children; and yet they were 
unwilliug to permit their sons and daughters to grow up to ma- 
turity, and remain forever ignorant of their mother tongue. 

Some t^|o years since, to meet this public demand, I recom- 
mended the establishment of a single class, now grown to be the 
Cosmopolitan Schools of this city. This system, though by no means 
unique, and confined to this cit}', is here perhaps better organized, 
and on a more liberal and comprehensive basis, than elsewhere. 
The plan is European; Germany has multitudes of schools where 
the French and English are recognized as we recognize the Ger- 
man, French, and Spanish. There are many such schools in the 
Eastern States. 

This system, though at first opposed here, as it had been else- 
where when first proposed and adoj^ted, and before its merits and 
6 



74 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

practicability had been tested, is now exceedingly popular in the 
commnnity, and enjoys a very intelligent and excellent patronage. 
Most of its former opponents are now its advocates — some its 
warmest sujDporters. These schools now can stand upon their own 
recognized and admitted merits. I predict that they will more 
than justify all that has been claimed in their behalf. 

SUPERINTENDENT "WIDBER's REPORTS. 

The three reports of Mr. Widber, 1871, '72, '73, were models 
of brevity, containing little except finance and statistics. Deputy 
Superintendent Swett in his reports made an exhibit of the re- 
sults of the cramming system as shown by the written examin- 
ations; argued against state uniformity of textbooks; advocated 
a higher rate of salaries for principals of Grammar Schools; 
and recommended the adoption of the Gruhe system of teaching 
Arithmetic to beginners. 

MR. DENMAN's REPORTS. 

The last reports of Superintendent Denman, 1874 and 1875, 
were the longest of the city reports. The report of 1874 treated 
at length of the new course of study. 

The last report of Superintendent Denman, 1875, recom- 
mended the establishment of a city !Normal School, and treated 
at length of the course of study. It also contained a valuable 
historical sketch of schools and teachers. 

The report of Deputy Superintendent Leggett recommended 
the abolishing of annual Avritten examinations for promo- 
tion; favored the appointment of a Board of Inspectors and 
a city Normal School; criticized the methods of teaching modern 
languages in the Cosmopolitan Schools, and recommended a 
cutting down of the course of study in the higher grades. The 
examination questions, in language prepared by Mr. Leggett, 
were particularly good. 

The report of Deputy Superintendent Leggett, on exam- 
inations and methods of teaching, was a valuable one J* The fol- 
lowing extracts illustrate its style : 

THE ANNUAL WRITTEN EXAMINATION. 

It is curious to observe how hard it is to break the chain in which 
long habit binds human societj^, or to get out of the groove of cus- 
tom. During certain stages of a people's progress no doubt this 
principle of aversion to change is useful and necessary; but there is 
also a time (whether we have yet reached it or not) when every 
practice or custom must make good its claim to future existence or 
cease to be. 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 75 

Why should we have annual examinations at all ? The question 
startles most eai's, and why? Because we have always had them at 
the close of the school year. The habit of holding them has become 
venerable from antiquity, and I know I shall 15e accused of sacri- 
legious interference with a time-honored custom in proposing to do 
away with them. If we ask, why should the annual examinations be 
kejDt up, we have forreplj^: Because we have always had them. 

If we ask, why should they be abolished, we have for replies: 

First. Because they are not needed. 

Second. Because they are expensive, costing the department at 
least $20,000 a year. 

Third. Because they render useless the school work of the last 
school month of every year, and foster cramming and overwork 
during that time. 

Fourth. Because they tend to produce excitement and lead to 
over-exertion on the part of pupils at a time when they are wearied 
by the work of the whole year. 

Fifth. Because if they were abolished, many teachers who, under 
the present sj'stem cannot be induced to abandon the practice of 
cramming for the examination, because they are, as they believe, to 
be judged by the results of it, could be induced to do some teach- 
ing in their classes. 

If I am asked how pupils could be promoted without these exam- 
inations, I answer. Promote them at any time of the year when their 
proficiency and the classification of the school would permit. How ? 
I believe it would be best to do it on examination duly made by 
thoroughl}^ qualified inspectors, such as I recommended the ap- 
pointment of in my last annual report. But if we are not ready for 
that, then on the examination of the teacher, the principal and the 
superintendent or his deputy. There is no one season of the year, 
so far as my observation goes, at which the minds of children ripen 
or mature — no particular month out of the twelve in which they 
become fully ripe and fit for the harvest. I believe the monstrous 
attempt to put children of widely varying physical and mental 
powers through the same mill in the same time, has worked infinite 
and irreparable mischief to many minds. 

THE TEACHERS OF OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

The School Department employs more than five hundred teachers 
at the present time. Most of them are ladies and gentlemen well 
qualified for the positions which they hold. They are zealous and 
enthusiastic in their work. They are willing and anxious to do all 
in their power to further the best interests of the children committed 
to their care. If they fail to do all that we could wish them to do, 
it is not because of any lack of desire to do so. It is disheartening 
to any such body of men and women to be treated with distrust by 
those who employ them, and I trust that the new Board of Educa- 
tion will extend to the teachers of our schools all the kind consider- 
ation, sympathy and aid that it is in their power to do. Young- 
teachers in this city have very meagre opportunities for improvement 
in the art of teaching. We have no Normal School. We have no 
teachers' institute, or associations. During the period of my con- 



76 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

nection with the clei:)artinent there has not been a single lecture on 
the science of education, or the art of teaching, delivered to the 
teachers of this city and county. If, therefore, some of our teachers 
are behind the times, if the ardor of others has slackened, if the 
professional pride of all has declined a little, is it much to be 
wondered at? I believe a revival of educational interest is needed in 
our city, and if the Board of Education can do something to bring- 
about so desirable a result, they will by so doing- reflect credit on 
themselves, and confer a benefit upon the schools under their 
charge. 

A CITY NORMAL SCHOOL. 

In my last annual report I tried to call the attention of the Board of 
Education to the necessity of having a Normal School established for 
the training of teachers. Up to the present time, however, members of 
the board have been unable to see the matter in the same light that 
I do, I think it is a disgrace to our city that we have no school 
within her limits for preparing j'oung men and women, who wish to 
devote themselves to the profession of teaching, for their work. I 
venture to say that there is not on the American continent to-day, a 
city of 250,000 inhabitants where some sort of a Normal School has 
not been established. I know that as we are now situated every 
dollar expended for the support of a really good Normal School 
would repay the city tenfold in the greater efficiency of the teachers 
who would be trained in it. Every person who has a particle of 
educational sense, must see that for lack of Normal School instruc- 
tion the dejDartment is losing every year ten times as much as it 
would cost to sustain a good Normal School in our city. 

The State Normal School at San Jose is, under its present able 
management, doing a noble work for the cause of education in Cal- 
ifornia. But we need a school of our own in this city for the special 
training of teachers for our graded schools. I do not think that the 
Normal School ought to be conducted in the High School, nor 
taught in connection therewith. I think it Avould be better to have 
it in some school in which all the grades are taught. In that case 
the teacher of the Normal Class could take the teachers in training 
into the classes of the different grades and there show them how to 
teach practically, by taking charge of the class himself and showing 
his pupils how to apply the best methods of instruction. If candi- 
dates for the jjositions of teachers in the public schools were well 
trained in such a school, we should have much more teaching and 
much less experimenting done in a large number of our classes. 

TOO MANY PUPILS ASSIGNED TO A TEACHER. 

I have no reason to change or modify my views on this subject 
during the past year. I would reiterate my oiiinion, as expressed 
in my last report, that not more than forty grammar j^upils, nor 
more than fifty primary pupils, ought to be assigned to any one 
teacher. 



111 i: -J 




AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 77 



2. MISCELLANEOUS HISTORICAL ITEMS. 

1. Buildings. — The schools were held iu rented rooms up to 
1854, when a building on the corner of Bush and Stockton streets 
was erected for the Deuman School; a large brick building for 
the Union Street School; and a spacious house at North Beach 
for the Powell Street Scbool. This last building was soon after- 
ward turned into a Cit}^ Hospital, because it could not be filled 
with pupils. 

The first schoolhouses were arranged on the New York City 
i:)lan of large session-rooms and small recitation-rooms. Since 
1857, the buildings have been arranged on the Boston plan — a 
sejjarate room for each class of 50 pupils. 

2. Grading. — The schools were originally classified into Pri- 
mary, Intermediate, and Grammar Departments, but were not 
regularly graded on the present plan until late in 1857. 

The first printed "course of stndy"was adopted June 10, 
1857, Mr. Pelton, Superintendent, and William Sherman, Pres- 
ident of the Board. The High School was organized in 1856, 
mainly through the efforts of William Sherman, the President 
of the Board. 

3. Salaries. — The salary paid Principals in 1852 and 1853 was 
$150 a month, exclusive of vacations; that is, $1500 a year. In 
1854, the salary was increased to $2000 a year; but this was 
paid in city scrip, worth from 60 to 70 cents on the dollar. 
Trom 1854 to 1872, the salaries varied from 11900 to $2100, but 
in 1873 were raised to $2400. 

The salaries of the High School Principals varied from $2300 
to $2500 and $3000, until 1874, when the salary of the Principal 
of the Bo3's' High School was made $4000. 

4. Certificates. — Until 1863, teachers were annually examined, 
to test their "fitness to teach a common school one year,'''' and the 
pioneer teachers, such as Denman, the Holmeses, Swett, Pelton, 
and others, were passed through the "examination-mill" a dozen 
times. The system afforded a fine opportunity for petty officials 
to browbeat schoolmasters and schoolma'ams. 

5. Annual Elections. — From 1850 to 1870, at the end of each 
year, all positions were declared vacant, and there was a general 
scramble for a "new deal." Occasionally there was the war- 
cry: " To the victors belong the spoils." 



78 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

If a "Director" had a spite against some mifoitimate peda- 
gogue, vengeance descended when the Board went into star- 
chamber sessions for the "Annual Election of Teachers." 

The doors of the star-chamber were besieged until midnight 
by anxious teachers, waiting to know their fate. 

This senseless annual insult to a whole body of teachers 
originated in the New England District Schools, when they were 
kept but a part of the year, and when, of course, a new teacher 
had to be elected annually. Strange as it may seem, it has 
been handed down from father to son as a precious heirloom, 
and is still the law of nearly every city, town, and district in the 
United States, — San Francisco excepted, 

A NEW DEPARTURE. 

In 1870, the Board, H. A, Cobb, President, decided to abol- 
ish annual elections, and elect teachers "during good behavior." 
This measure was vigorously supported by most of the city 
press, but was as vigorously opposed by the Superintendent 
and a minority of the Board, who tenaciously "held on to the 
good old way." 

6. Examinations of Schools. — Up to 1862, the pupils in Gram- 
mar and Primary Schools were promoted by the principals and 
teachers on the records of the scholars' work during the year. 
Public examinations were conducted orally at the end of the 
year. 

In 1863, the promotion by means of written examinations and 
percentages was introduced as a system. The result was, that 
in a few years, the main efforts of teachers were directed to 
cramming for examination. Pupils were made writing-machines. 
In 1874 and 1875, even the lowest grade primary classes were 
examined in writing. The evil culminated in a reaction, and in 
1876 a committee of principals, with Superintendent Bolauder, 
requested the Committee of Classification, Mr. Tait, Chairman, 
to abolish the cast-iron system, and allow principals to classify 
their schools. The permission asked for was granted, and it is 
to be hoped the cramming system will never be restored. 

7. Secular Schools. — From 1851 to 1854, it was customary in 
many schools to open the exercises with praj^er and the reading 
of a passage from the Bible by the teacher. This was authorized 
by one of the earliest school regulations. The question formed 
a bone of contention for several years, but by common consent 



AND SCHOOL EEPORTS. 79 

most of the teachers, after 1856, discontinued the reading of the 
Bible and prayer. The tendency of public opinion was toward 
purely secular schools. In his State Eeports, Superintendent 
Swett advocated purely secular schools. 

In 1874, for the first time, an official resolution in favor of 
purely secular education appears on record. The President of 
the Board, Andrew McF. Davis, ruled that the repeating of the 
Lord's Prayer was sectarian, and in violation of the school law. 
This decision was sustained by the Board. Public opinion, in 
most parts of the State, is in accordance with this decision. 

-8. Politics and Schools. — Though nominated and elected by 
political parties, the Boards of Education have not been, in 
general, marked by partisan action. From 1856 to 1867, a ma- 
jority of the members of each Board was elected on the "Peo- 
ple's Party Ticket." From 1868 to 1876, there has been a 
preponderance of members elected on the Democratic Ticket. 
Superintendent Theller was elected on the Democratic Ticket; 
Mr. Peltou was twice, and Superintendent Denman three times 
elected by the Democratic party. All the other Superintendents 
were elected on the "People's Party" or the Kepublican 
Ticket. Under the "Know-Nothing" regime, in 1855, a few 
teachers were removed on account of "accent." During the 
war, two or three "secession" teachers were dropped; but, in 
general, while both political and religious influences have, to 
some extent, influenced the election of teachers, very few have 
been proscribed on account of either politics or religion. Prot- 
estants, Catholics, Israelites, Democrats and Republicans, work 
harmoniously together in teaching children of all shades of 
religious belief and political opinion. 

9. Music and Draiving. — From the beginning, music and 
drawing, to the extent of a smattering, were taught in the 
schools. In 1859, Hubert Burgess was appointed special 
teacher of drawing, and Mr. F. K. Mitchell, teacher of music. 
In 1868, Washington Elliott succeeded Mr. Mitchell as music 
teacher. In 1871, Masons Music Headers and Charts were 
adopted, with a specific course in the Manual. Heal instruc- 
tion in vocal music dates from this period. In 1874, Smith's 
System of Drawing was introduced, making the beginning of 
systematic instruction in this branch. 

10. Changes in Text-Books. — The changes in text-books, from 



80 



SCHOOL LEGISLATION 



1851 to 1876, twenty-five years, may be briefly summed up as 
follows: 

Headers: Swan's, Towne's, Sargent's, Willson's, McGuffey's. 
Average time of use, five years. 

Arithmetics: Thompson's, Colburn's, Kobinson's; the last from 
1865 to 1876. Average time of use, eight years. 

Grammars: Tower's, Weld's, Greene's, Kerl's, Brown's. Av- 
erage time, five years. 

Geographies: Mitchell's, Cornell's, Guyot's, Clarke's, Mon- 
teith's. Average time, five years. 

Spellers: Towne's, Sargent's, Willson's. 

United States History: Parley's, Goodrich's, Lossing's, Ander- 
son's, Swinton's. Average time, five years. 

11. Co-Education. — Up to 1864, the boj's and girls were edu- 
cated together. When the Denman Grammar School buildiiig 
was completed, only girls Avere admitted; the Lincoln was made 
a boys' school, and the Rincon a girls' school. In 1868 the 
Union and the Washington were made boys' schools, and the 
Broadway a girls' school. The Boys' High and the Girls' High 
were formed from the Boys' and Girls' High School in 1864. 
With these exceptions all the other schools have always been 
attended by both sexes. 

12. Teachers' Associcdions and Evening Normal Schools. — In 
1853 the Principals formed a monthly association for the discus- 
sion of school questions. This continued until 1857, when a 
weekly Normal School was established by the Board of Educa- 
tion. Attendance was made compulsory. The school was held 
at first on Saturdays; afterwards, on Monday eveniugs, George 
W. Minns, John Swett, Ellis H. Holmes, and Thomas S. My- 
rick, were elected teachers. This school continued until 1862. 
The following is a list of the graduates of what is known as 
the "Minns Evening Normal School:" 



Miss Ellen Casey, 
" M. A. Casebolt, 
" Alice Baker, 
" L. E. Fifld, 
" Eliza Hawkhiirst, 
" Kate Keunedy, 



Geacuates of 1861. 

Miss Lizzie Kennedy, 
" A. B. Kimball, 
" M. A. Wills, 
" C. L. Hunt, 
" D. S. Piescott, 
" M, L. Tracy, 



Miss M. D. Lynde, 
" Hannah Marks, 
" Beatrice Weed, 

Mrs. A. E. Du Bois. 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 



81 



Miss A. S. Barnard, 

" C. V. Benjamin, 

" Anna Child, 

" C. A. Coffin, 

" L. H. Crool^er, 

" H. B. Cnshing, 

" E. P. Fern aid, 

" E. S. Griffin, 

" H. A. Haneke, 

" H. H. Heagan, 

" Anna Hill, 

" M. A. Humphreys, 

" L. A. Humphreys, 



Geaduatks of 1862. 

Miss Lizzie Macy, 

" W. L. Morgan, 

" A. S. Moses, 

" H. E. Porter, 

" Geraldine Price, 

" M. E. Scotchler, 

" A. A. Eowe, 

" E. P. Shaw, 

" M. E.Stowell, 

" P. M. Stowell, 

" Helen Thomjison, 

" E. M. Tiebout, 

" M. E. Warren, 



Miss 



Mrs. 



M. C. White, 

S. J. White, 

L. A . Humphrey's, 

S. M. Hunt, 

Annie Lawrence, 

E. C. Burt, 

E. S. Forrester, 

L. A. Morgan, 

M. S. P. Nichols, 

H. E. Packer, 

C. H. Stout, 

S. A. D. Lansingh. 



The "Minns Normal Scbool " was succeeded for several years 
bj monthly meetings of teachers under the direction of the 
Board of Education, but these died out in 1869. 

In 1872 the Board established another Evening Normal 
School, which was continued two years, Avith the following 
corps of teachers: Principal, John Swett; Assistants, Joseph 
Leggett, Mrs. Mary W. Kincaid, and Theodore Bradley, 
Since 1873 there have been no teachers' meetings, associations, 
or normal schools. 

13. Educational Hobbies. — In early times Colhurns Blental 
Arithiietic was a favorite hobby, and for many jears afterward 
arithmetic was the leading branch of study to which more than 
half the school-time of pupils was devoted. In some cases, four 
hours out of the five were devoted to the favorite hobby of the old- 
time schoolmaster. Of late years, about one-fourth of the time 
is given to this study. 

The epidemic of self-reporting j)revailed from 1859 to 1862. 
" Map drawing " was fashionable from 1860 to 1871. 

In 1868-70 education consisted mainl}^ of " oral instruction." 

In early times "exhibitions," "May festivals," and "danc- 
ing parties" were in fashion. " Calisthenics and gymnastics " 
prevailed from 1856 to 1860. 

" Written Examinations " and "Percentages" were the rage 
from 1863 to 1875; they went out of style during the Centennial 
year. 

"Phonography," in the higher grammar grades, was the 
hobby of 1872 and 1873, but was ridden to death in 1874. 

" Mark's Geometry," for the 3d and 4th grammar grades, was 
the experiment in 1869 and 1870; it failed in 1871. 

" Cosmopolitan Schools" became the rage in 1872 and 1873; 



82 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

there was a reaction in 1874, v/hen French and German were 
abolished during a revolutionary period of four months. The 
"restoration" soon followed by act of the Legislature. 

The twin hobbies, with Boards of Education from 1854 to 
1864, were the annual examination of teachers and the an- 
nual elections. Indeed, " annual elections," like bull fights, 
were in vogue until 1870. " Investigations " raged in 1872 and 
1873, while the favorite hobby of the Board of 1874 and 1875 
was "rules and regulations." 

14. lleriis and Defects. — The marked merits of the city schools 
are: 

1. Convenient buildings. 

2. Good discipline. 

3. In general, hard-working teachers. 

4. Good instruction in Music and Drawing. 

5. The purely secular character of the schools. 
The marked defects are : 

1. Too many pupils per teacher. 

2. Too rigid classification. 

3. Too much cramming of text-books. 

4. Too many lessons for home study. 

5. A complicated system of daily recitation records and 

monthly reports. 

6. A lack of professionally trained teachers. 

7. The lack of a City Normal School. 

8. A lack of thorough inspection. 

9. Short terms of office of Superintendent and School 

Directors. 

15. Address of President Davis. — The address of the President 
of the Board, Andrew McF. Davis, Nov. 14, 1875, sets forth in 
detail some of the marked features of the city system. The 
following are extracts : 

It is fitting and proper that I should avail myself of this oppor- 
tunity to say to this audience a few words concennug what this 
Board, whose term of ofiice is so nearly closed, has done, and also 
relative to the graded system upon which the schools of the Depart- 
ment are organized. 

Under the customs which at present prevail, no report is made 
by the Board to the peojDle. The only published report concerning 
the affairs of the Department which reaches the public is the report 
of the Superintendent. That ofiicer being elected directly by the 
peoi^le, and being only in a measure responsible to the Board, and 
no report being submitted in published form by the Board, or its 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 83 

Committees, I shall offer no apology for taking advantage of this 
occasion to say a few words which, under a different organization of 
affairs, I should have preferred to present elsewhere. * * 

The objects and purposes of this school, as originally organized, 
were substantially what they are to-day. The means at hand to 
reach these objects and effect these purposes have largely increased, 
and the school to-day has before it an enlarged field of usefulness, 
the circle of which not only expands with the increase of the popu- 
lation of the State and City, but the cultivation of which is vastly 
aided by the generous sympathies of the public. 

The necessity of the school is to supplement the graded system 
of teaching which jorevails in the lower divisions of the Department. 
To accomplish this, the course of study in the school itself must be 
elastic enough to aid and encourage in their labors: 

I. Those who have successfully passed through the Grammar 
grades and wish to pursue a higher course of study, whether scien- 
tific, literar3% or classical. 

II. Those who have passed through the Grammar grades success- 
fully, and wish to round oft' their education in a shorter period ; to 
gather in and appropriate what they can, but who are especially de- 
sirous of pursuing with diligence for a short space of time certain 
scientific or mathemati(!al studies. 

III. Those whose education has been acquired outside of our city 
schools, and whose percentages may show a decided falling off in 
some of the studies, and an unusual prominence in others. 

And finally, those who, from some constitutional incapacity, are 
unable to pursue with success certain studies beyond fixed points, 
but who are able to reach a certain grade, yet cannot get beyond it, 
if the inexorable law of percentages is rigidly applied. 

For all of these, and perhaps for others, must a place be found 
in this school. 

Because a young man, with a copious diction and a delicate 
literary taste, can only achieve the jjons asiaorum by memorizing 
the demonstration, shall we keep him lagging behind the army in 
its advance, or shall we tr}' him now in this place, now in that, 
until we find the place where he can do the best work and where we 
can work him to the best advantage ? 

Because the graded system demands a certain percentage for pro- 
motion, shall we keep a puj^il, year after 3'ear, in the first grade of 
the Grammar dej^artment, who from some mental deficiency is held 
back from promotion by absolute failure in some especial study? 
Is it not better to recognize this as one of the defects of a system, 
excellent in some respects, which is to be supplemented as far as 
may be by this school ? 

In order to realize what the defects are that need to be supple- 
mented, it is essential to look at the organization of our schools and 
observe of what different materials they are composed. "We see, 
side by side, the children of professional men, merchants and la- 
borers ; children whose every step is carefully watched, and those 
whose normal condition is absolute freedom from restraint ; we see 
the rude and the polished; black and white; rich and poor; all pat- 
ronizing our schools. 



84 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

For these children, reared under such different conditions, enjoy- 
ing such varied advantages, disciplined to such different degrees of 
obedience, is provided a curriculum, rigid, inelastic, and uncon- 
scious of any difi'erence in the characters, the surroundiugs, or the 
opportunities of the pujjils. 

At the age of six years, says the law, you may send your child to 
the public school, and, continues our course of stud}^ whatever his 
condition of discipline may then be, he shall pursue the following 
studies, such and such quantities to be given in stated periods and 
in definite ways. At the age of six, then, the pupils are launched 
upon the course of study. But how different are their opportuni- 
ties! While at home, whether at meals or at play, the one child is 
under the care of educated and refined parents, who maintain a con- 
stant supervising influence over their offspring; who do not neglect 
discipline in mistaken kindness, and who accomplish far more in 
the process of leading forward the child than can be possible for 
any teacher in the lower grades. 

Side by side with his little playmate another has to struggle along 
the path alone. His parents earn their bread by the sweat of their 
brows. There is no time to waste on refinement or cultivation. 
Here the case is reversed. The teacher is all in all, and much more 
is accomplished at school than at home in the process of unfolding 
the mental faculties and develojnng the intellectual growth. 

Suppose that these two children are of equal mental calibre, will 
their growth be the same under the graded system? If not, what 
provision is there for such vast, such inevitable discrepancies? For, 
in this comparison, I have not drawn the strongest possible, nor 
even the strongest probable contrast. The law of " hereditaiy ten- 
dency" would assert, as i:)robable, that the child of professional or 
literary parents would have stronger natural tastes for literary pur- 
suits than the child of the laborer. So that the natural tendency 
would be to make the contrast even more striking. 

How in the Avorld can such grave obstacles to the adjustment of 
the graded system be overcome ? How can any rigid system be 
made to fit such a variety of minds, from the most brilliant to the 
i:)Ositively stupid? How can the same noiirishment, in quality and 
quantity, sustain the giant and the pigmy ? These questions seemed 
to me, when I entered up)on my duties as a School Director, inca- 
pable of answer. 

I have found a partial explanation of the matter in this, that in 
many schools the promotions are so made that the bright and for- 
ward scholars do two years' work in one — actually accomplishing 
this work with ease. In other words, the course of study, as at 
present arranged, being adapted as near as may be to the best in- 
terests of the average intellect under average conditions favorable 
for its development, must necessarily fall below the capacit}^ of a 
large number of the scholars. To keep these busy, they must either 
do two years' work in one, which is accomplished by promotions at 
the end of the first six months (making advance work of what is re- 
view to a portion of the grade), or some other means must be devised 
to keep their minds active during school hours. * * * 

This forcing pupils over two years' work in one, is the only source 
of relief from the rigid demands of the Manual which I have discov- 



AND SCHOOL REPOETS. 85 

ered. It is not, of course, capable of extensive application, and the 
generally inelastic nature of the work in the lower departments re- 
mains to be supplemented, and as far as possible compensated for 
here. We have sought to provide for this by furnishing various 
parallel branches of study in this school, and it is my hope that the 
chevaux de /rise of percentages which bristle upon every avenue of 
approach to this stronghold of learning may be to some extent re- 
moved, and a more liberal view taken of what the school is for. It 
is true that not every horse can be trained to be a race horse; but 
it is none the less true that we like to see our coach horses well 
groomed. 

The question has been discussed in public, "What shall we do 
with our boys?" Orators, lawyers and editors have addressed audi- 
ences uj^on this topic. It interests all classes, and we, who are 
connected with educational matters, are brought closely in contact 
with it. 

Let those gentlemen who have propounded that question cast 
their eyes over this audience, and we will show them what we are 
doing with our boys at this end of the line. But alas ! the fruit 
that we see ripening here to-day is but a small percentage of that 
which was set in the j^rimary school, and they might still say this 
does not answCT our question. 

May I be pardoned at this time, and in this connection, if I throw 
out a hint of what I believe will help to solve this question in the 
future. The subject is closely connected with what has gone be- 
fore, and perhaps these words may fall upon willing ears. 

I have alluded to the different planes upon which pupils of the 
same age stand in the graded system, and the different results that 
must follow from precisely the same instruction. Apart from all 
questions of intellectual culture, the habits of discipline and obedi- 
ence acquired by a child reared in a well-ordered family are probably 
of more value than any other development. The recej^tivity of a 
child who has been taught to move, or to stop when spoken to, must 
be far greater than that of one whose life has been spent in throwing 
stones at Chinamen, and building bonfires in the streets. 

The generous ntiture of the climate here is such that the child of 
a famil}'^ too poor to maintain constant sujDervision over it, is turned 
adrift ujoon the streets to charge about, committing those minor 
offenses — promises, and almost certain forerunners of serious diffi- 
culty one of these days. 

Experience has established, and the law has defined, the proper 
minimum age for beginning our regular studies in the public schools 
to be six years, and we all know that practically this is young 
enough according to our present methods. 

But modern German thought has develojoed a system of amusing 
children which at the same time prepares their minds for future 
training, and enables parents to avail themselves of the system while 
their children are still ver}^ young. 

If it were possible to erect a few buildings around the city, in 
those jDortions where the very young abound so thickly, and gather 
in the little children between the ages of three and six years, for five 
or six hours daily, during which time they should be amused and 
interested; thus removing them from the dangers and temptations 



86 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

of the streets; comforting their mothers with the knowledge of their 
safety; teaching- them little or nothing except methods of thought; 
I say, if one, two or three such schools could be tried, something 
could be done for the boy of twelve or fifteen years hence. From 
the Kindergarten these boys would enter the Primary School upon 
a par with the boys with whom I have heretofore placed them in 
contrast; with habits of obedience and methods of thought already 
acquired. Truancy, that terror of principals, would be reduced, for 
school by this sj^stem is a synonym for pleasure. The little fellows 
look forward with delight to the hours to be spent there, and leave 
for home with regret. The wild charms of a nomadic life, the com- 
forts of a night in a dry-goods box or a sugar hogshead — all these 
can and would be dispelled by continuous kiudl}' effort. The hold 
that this wild, irresponsible sort of life has upon the unkempt 
natures of these little fellows is almost incomprehensible, and the 
necessity for capturing them while young — very young — and mold- 
ing them to conform more nearly to some recognized social type, is 
evident to the reflective mind. Further, our knowledge of our pupils 
and their ways of life would begin earlier, and we should know 
better what it was essential to do to aid them in the rugged pathways 
of life. 

These, then, are the lessons which my two years' service in the 
department have taught me: 

I. The great evil of our system is its inelasticity. 

II. The remedies which can be applied are: The Kindergarten at 
one end of the course; judicious promotions of exceptionality bright 
pupils during the course; and a liberal ojiening up of the opp)ortu- 
nities of the High School at the other end. 

I entertain the hope that the experiment of the Kindergarten or 
some kindred school may be tried at an early date. Properly man- 
aged it cannot fail. I urge it not so much for its direct educational 
result (though the experiment elsewhere has proved a success) as 
for the hold it will give upon the good-will and affections of these 
nomad children, whose lives are otherwise destined to be lost in the 
streets. By this means they can be gathered in. They can be kept 
out of mischief and they can be taught, without knowing it, what 
obedience is. They can be jorej^ared for the primary work, and the 
tares of truancy can be weeded out of their desires. This work fairly 
inaugurated, the effects upon the inelastic graded system could not 
fail to be realized. 

As to the work in the High Schools, I feel sure that all here will 
give the present Board of Education credit for having labored with 
great unanimity to improve it, and will join with me in congratu- 
lating the teachers and the boys upon the mutual good-will which 
seems to pervade this school. 

I have before stated the purposes of the school. AVe have shaped 
our course of study to meet these purposes. In this form we shall 
hand it over to our successors, our term of office having nearly 
expired. Its future rests in their hands. 

Among the problems which they will have to solve will be the 
various questions as to what shall entitle a person to admission, and 
what shall be required of students after admission. In our action we 
have recognized certain general principles. 



AND SCHOOL EEPOKTS. 87 

It is impossible for us to ignore the fact that after passing beyond 
the Grammar grades, any course of study which treads beyond cer- 
tain limits must overtake and lie parallel with that of the University. 
A due regard for economy will not permit us to retain here, at a 
great expense, a school simply to traverse ground, which can be 
gained by crossing the Bay, with little inconvenience to the student 
and with no expense to the city. Apart from questions of economy 
we have earnestly labored to maintain harmonious relations with 
the officers of the University, and have sought to shape our school 
so that it should prove a feeder and not a rival. 

At the same time we have endeavored to enlarge the sphere of 
usefulness of the school to its greatest jiossible dimensions. It be- 
longs to the public. It has been carefully provided for, and its 
dispensations should be made in a liberal spirit and with a liberal 
hand. 

Many questions relating to young men, peculiarly situated, who, 
under the rules cannot derive any benefit from the school, but who 
are worthy of our aid and sympathy, will constantly arise. No rule 
can be laid down that will govern all such cases. The only thing to 
do is to determine each case on its merits. 

What I have said of this school will generally apply to the Girls' 
High School. We have endeavored to make the course of study 
there more elastic than it was. The elements with which we have 
to deal there, differ largely from those composing this school. A 
majority of the pupils desire to become teachers, and are anxious to 
pursue a special course of study which shall fit them for that pur- 
pose. It is not improbable that the pressure in that direction will 
at an early day lead to the foundation of a City Normal School. In 
that case, what will become of the remnant of the school which will 
be left ? 

AVhen the school was founded the sexes were together, and I see 
no objection to an opportunity being afforded them to pursue their 
studies together now. * * * 

I believe this to be the only true polic}' to pursue with reference 
to the higher schools. As far as is practicable, give your principals 
swing and hold them accountable for results. If they fail, depose 
them, but do not meddle with them any more than can be helped 
while they are on trial. 

In the matter of text-books for the High Schools, fear of popular 
clamor against new books should not prevent their introduction 
whenever needed. The world does not stand still, and advanced 
ideas cannot be obtained from obsolete books. It is nonsense to 
think of acquiring a higher education without taking advantage of 
every aid in the way of new books. 

15. Veteran Teachers. — Ellis H. Holmes ranks as the teacher 
coutiuuously engaged iu teaching in the city schools for the 
longest period of time — 23 years, from February, 1853, to June, 
1876. During that time he was never absent a day from school. 
Mrs. A. E. Dubois, nee Miss Anna E. Saudford, ranks next 
to Mr. Holmes, having begun teaching as an assistant in Mr. 
Denman's school, April, 1853. She has been continuously in 



88 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

tlie schools, with the exception of six months' leave of absence. 
Mrs. L. A. K. Clappe has taught continuously since November 
4, 1854, and Mrs. L. A. Morgan since 1855. Mrs. Margaret 
Deane has taught since 1854, but not continuously. 

James Denman began teaching November 17, 1851, but re- 
signed in 1857, and was elected City Superintendent in 1858. 
He has taught altogether 13 years, and held the office of Super- 
intendent 7 years. 

John C. Pelton taught in San Francisco in 1850; from 1857 
to 1860; 1863 to 1870; altogether 11 years. He was City Su- 
perintendent 3 years, and County Superintendent 1 ye^v; was 
Principal of the State Reform School at Marysville, 1860 to 
1863, and Superintendent of the San Francisco Industrial 
School from 1870 to 1872. 

Captain Joseph C. Morrill was the popular Principal of the 
Spring Valley School from 1852 to 1860, when he resigned and 
soon after entered the volunteer service of the United States, 
and remained during the war of secession. In 1870, he was 
appointed Principal of the Industrial School, and soon after- 
wards Superintendent. During an "investigation" the hue and 
cry of cruelty was raised against him, and he resigned. He 
was one of the kindest and most generous of men, and was the 
most useful teacher ever employed in that institution. 

George W. Minns was elected teacher of Natural Sciences in 
the High School, August, 1856, and Principal of the Boys' High 
School in 1864, and Principal of the State Normal School, 1866. 
In 1867, he resigned and went East. Professor Minns was one 
of the leading educational lecturers in the State. 

H. P. Carlton was Principal of a Grammar School from 1854 
to 1861; Vice-principal and Principal of the State Normal 
School from 1863 to 1873; and has been a teacher in San Fran- 
cisco and Oakland since 1873. 

Theodore Bradley was made Principal of the Denman School, 
1861, and of the Boys' High School in 1866; in which he re- 
mained until 1874. 

Thomas S. Myrick was the popular Principal of the Market 
Street School and the Union Grammar School from 1856 to 
1869. He is now teaching at Dutch Flat. 

Mrs. E. S. Forrester has been continuously engaged as a pri- 
mary teacher since May 10, 1856, — 20 years. 

Miss Kate Kennedy, the first female Principal of a Grammar 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 



89 



Scliool, lias been in tlie Department, without leave of absence, 
for 19 years. 

Miss Dorcas D. S. Prescott, and Mrs. C. V. Gummer, nee 
Benjamin, have taught since 1857, — 18 years. 

Mrs. E. H. B. Yarney has tauglit school 30 years; one half 
of that period in this city. 

Miss A. E. Slavan, Miss C. L. Hunt, and Mrs. S. N. Joseph, 
have been teaching since 1859. 

Miss P. M. Stowell, Mrs. M. J. Sankey, nee Kitchie, Mrs. A. 
H. Hammill, nee Austin, and Miss M. A. Humphreys, have 
taught for 15 years; Mrs. Mary W. Kincaid, Miss J. M. A. 
Hurley, Miss Anna A. Hill, 14 years; Miss Helen Thompson, 
Mrs. E. P. Bradley, Mrs. A. S. Trask, nee Duane, Miss Anna 
Gibbons, 13 years; Mrs. Aurelia Griffith, Miss G. E. Thurton, 
Miss S. A. Barr, Mrs. C. L. Atwood, and Miss Laura S. Fow- 
ler, 12 years. 

Hubert Burgess has taugbt drawing for 16 years, and Wasli- 
iugtou Elliott has been teaching music for 14 years. 

Henry N. Bolander was a teacher in this city for 11 years; 
he became State Superintendent in 1872, and City Superintend- 
ent in 1876. 

Ebenezer Knowlton, well known as an Institute elocutionist, 
was first an assistant in the State Normal School, 1865, after- 
wards Principal of the Eincon School, and is now an assistant 
in the Boys' High School. 

16. Ten Years Teaching.— The following is a list of teachers 
continuously engaged in teaching in the city schools for a period 
of ten years : 



Beaks, Mrs. C. E. 
Bragg, Miss Mar}' J. 



Flint, Miss A. T. 
Grant, Miss Helen A. 



Baumgardner, Mrs. E. M. Gorman, Mr. W. J. 



Baldwin, Nellie. 
Burke, Mrs. L. K. 
Cleveland, Miss E. A. 
Ciprico, Miss Anita C. 
Campbell, Miss Amy T. 
Cook, Miss Hannah. 
Carusi, Mrs. M. J. 
Cfiilds, Miss Katie B. 
Campbell, Miss C. E. 
Coulon, Miss V. 
Castelhun, Miss M. A. 
Carter, Mrs. Louisa. 
Dore, Miss A. M. 
Deetken, Mrs. E. G. 
Foster, Mrs. Emily. 
Fink, Miss A. P. 
Forbes, Miss Jennie. 

6 



Humphrey, Mr. E. D. 
Hucks, Miss Annie E. 
Hoft'man, Mrs. M. L. 
Harswell, Miss M. A. 
Hyman, Miss Deborah. 
Jourdan, Miss A. M. 
Jordan, Miss M. L. 
Jewett, Miss A. S. 
Jewett, Miss Lizzie B. 
Jones, Mrs. E. B. 
Littletield, Miss Nellie A. 
Manning, Miss Agnes M. 
Mayborn, Miss M. J. 
Marcus, Mrs. E. C. 
Malloy, Miss Bessie. 
Miller, Miss S. E. 
Parker, Miss Jean. 



Plunkett, Mrs. C. P. 
Pteyuolds, Mrs. F. E. 
Russell, Mrs. L. A. 
Eowe, Miss A. A, 
Sullivan, Miss KateM. 
Salisbury, Miss M. A. 
Shaw, Miss E. A. 
Sullivan, Mrs.Therese M, 
Stincen, Miss M. A. 
Smith, Miss Jessie. 
Smith, Miss Jennie. 
Smith, Miss M . F. 
Stowell, Miss Fannie. 
Soule, Miss Fanny L. 
White, Miss Elizabeth. 
Wood, Mrs.E. A. 
Wade, Miss Margaret, 
"Washburn, Mrs. Georgia. 
Winn, Mr. A, T. 
White, Silas A. 



90 SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

3. SUPERINTENDENTS OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS, SAN FRANCISCO. 

APPOINTED BY THE BOAKD OE EDUCATION. 

Thomas J. Nevins '52, '53 

Wm. H. O'Grady '54, '55 

ELECTED BY DIRECT VOTE OF THE PEOPLE. 

E. A. Tbeller '56 

John C. Peltou '57, '66, '67 

Henry B. Janes '58, '59 

James Denman '60, '61, '68, '69, '70, '74, '75 

George Tait '62, '63, '64, '65 

J. H. Widber '71, '72, '73 

H. N. Bolander '76-'78 

Deputy Superintendents. 
[Appointed by the City Superiuteudent.] 

John Swett '71, '72, '73 

Joseph Leggett '74, '75 

D. C. Stone '76-'78 

Secretaries of the Board. 
[Appointed by the Siiiieriutendent and Confirmed by the Board.] 
George Beanston '68-76 

4. PRESIDENTS OF BOARDS OF EDUCATION, SAN FRANCISCO. 
[Mayors, ex-officio, Presidents of Boards api:)oiuted by the Common Council. 

C. J. Brenham '52 

C. K. Garrison '54 

S. P. Webb '55 

James Van Ness '56 

CHOSEN BY BOARDS ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE. 

William Sherman '57, '58, '59 

William Pierson '60, '61 

W. L. Palmer '62 

Dr. C. C. Knowles '63 

M. Lynch '64, '65 

J. W. Wiuaus '66, '67 

Thos. H. Holt '68 

H. A. Cobb '69 

J. M. Burnett '70, 71 

Joseph Clement '72, '76 

H. J. Tilden '73, '74 

Andrew McF. Davis '75 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 



91 



5. HISTORICAL LIST OF PRINCIPALS, SAN FRANCISCO.* 

* Taken, mainljs from the Auuual Eeport of Saperiuteudent Deuman, '75. 



BOYS' HIGH. 

E. H. Holmes Aug. '56. 

Geo. W. Minns June, '64. 

Theodore Bradley. . . .June, '65. 
W. T. Reed March, '75. 

GIRLS' HIGH. 

E. H. Holmes '64 to '76. 

John Swett June, '76. 

DENMAN. 

James Denman Nov. '51. 

George Tait June, '57. 

Theodore Bradley Dec. '61. 

James Denman July? '64. 

John Swett Dec. '67. 

James Denman Jan. '71. 

John Swett Dec. '73. 

James Denman June, '76. 

EINCON. 

Silas Weston Jan. '52. 

Wm. H. O'Grady May, '52. 

Stillman Holmes Oct. '53. 

John Swett Dec. '53. 

John C. Pelton Jan. '63. 

IraG. Hoitt Sept. '64. 

Ebenezer Knowlton. ..June, '65. 
Miss E. A. Cleveland. ..Oct. '74. 

WASHINGTON. 

F. E. Jones Dec. '51. 

E. H. Holmes March, '53. 

H. P. Carlton Aug. '56. 

James Stratton Jari. '61. 

L. D. Allen July, '68. 

Joseph O'Connor Dec. '74. 

UNION. 

Ahira Holmes June, '52. 

"Wm. Hammill Nov. '56. 

Ahira Holmes Jan. '58. 

Thomas S. Myrick Jan. '60. 

Philij) Prior June, '69. 

Chas. F. True Dec. '74. 



SPRING VALLEY. 

Asa W. Cole Feb. '52. 

J. C.Morrill Oct. '53. 

Geo. W. Peck May, '60. 

Geo. W. Bunnell Jan. '62. 

Bernhard Marks Jan. '74. 

Noah F. Flood June, '68. 

W. J. G. Williams. . . .June, '69. 

Silas A. White Feb. '75. 

J. W. Anderson Jan. '76. 



IraG. Hoitt July, '65. 

J. C. Pelton Dec. '67. 

W. T. Luckey Dec. '67. 

Bernhard Marks June, '68. 

J. K. Wilson...., Nov. '72. 

MISSION. 

Alfred Ris May, '52. 

Clara B. Walbridge. . .Aug. '53. 

Thos. C. Leonard Nov. '55. 

Ahira Holmes June, '65. 

E. D. Humphrey June, '67. 

Mary J. Bragg Feb. '71. 

Laura T. Fowler Nov. '74. 

BROADWAY. 

W. J. G. Williams. . .June, '68. 

Noah F. Flood June, '69. 

Chas. F. True Nov. '72. 

W. J. G. Williams Feb. '75. 

C. H. Ham March, '76. 

SOUTH COSMOPOLITAN. 

Mrs. Ulrika Rendsburg . .Oct. '65. 

H. N. Bolander Feb. '67. 

A.Herbst Dec. '71. 

NORTH COSMOPOLITAN. 

Miss Kate Kennedy '67. 

EIGHTH STREET. 

Wm. J. Gorman Jan. '68. 

J. Phelps Sept. '69. 

John A. Moore Sept. '70. 



92 



SCHOOL LEGISLATION 



HATES VALLEY. 

E. D. Humphrey July, 71. 

VALENCIA STEEET. 

Silas A. White 71. 

J. W. Anderson Feb. 75. 

Silas A. White Jan. 76. 

MODEL SCHOOL. 

Mrs. A. E. Dubois 'G7. 

SOUTH SAN FEANCISCO. 

W. J. Gorman Sept. '69. 

GEARY STREET, 

Wm. A. Robertson June, 76. 

MARKET STREET PRIMARY. 

Miss M. D. Lynde. . .March, '60. 

Fred. Elliot Jan. '62. 

Bernhard Marks Sept. '62. 

Mrs. C. H. Stout Jan. '64. 

Miss Agnes Manning. .July, 72. 

LINCOLN PRIMARY. 

Miss Kate Sullivan 'G6. 

TEHAMA PRIMARY. 

Mrs. E.G. Burt June, '65. 

Mrs. E. A. Wood June, '67. 

FOURTH STREET. 

Mrs. A. E. McGlynn. .April, '63. 
Mrs. L. A. Morgan June, '65. 

PINE AND LARKIN PRIMARY. 

Miss Eliza Hawxhurst. .Jan, '62. 

Miss J. A. Lyon March, '62. 

Mrs. C. H. Stout May, '63. 

Mrs. Alice Bunnell May, '64. 

Miss Hannah Cooke. . .June, '65. 

GREENWICH PRIMARY. 

Mrs. R. D. Bird Jan. '52 

Miss P. M. Stowell Dec. '61. 

Miss Kate Kennedy. . .May, '62. 
Mrs. W. R. Duane June, '68. 



HAYES VALLEY PRIMARY. 

Miss H. B. Gushing. . . .Jan. '63. 

Miss L. J. Mastic Mav, '64. 

Miss P. M. Stowell. .March, '68. 

UNION PRIMARY. 

Mrs. Amelia Griffith '67. 

EIGHTH STEEET PRIMARY. 

Miss Mary Williams. .June, '64. 
Miss A. E. Slaven Oct. '64. 

SHOTWELL PRIMARY. 

Miss Anna A. Hill Feb. '72. 

BUSH STREET PRIMARY. 

Mrs. C. P. Plunkett. . . .Jan. '72. 

BROADWAY PEIMAEY. 

Miss A. M. Murphy. . . .Feb. '67. 
Mrs. L. G. Deetkin . . . .Aug. 70. 

SPRING VALLEY PRIMARY. 

Miss H. A. Hanecke . .March, '66. 

Miss P. A. Fink Sept. '66. 

Miss J. M. A. Hurley. .Nov. '67. 

POWELL STREET PRIMARY. 

Mrs. E. G. Burt June, '61. 

Miss Caroline Price. . .June, '63. 
Miss C. V. Benjamin. .June, 'GQ. 

RINCON PRIMARY. 

Miss E. G. Smith Jan. '67. 

Miss Jennie Smith. . .March, '68. 

STOCKTON PRIMARY. 

Miss M. D'Arcy '68. 

Miss A. M. Stincen '74. 

TYLER AND JONES STEEET. 

Mrs. C. B. Jones '70. 

SAN BRUNO. 

Miss G. Washburn. . ..Sept. '64. 

George Pershine Jwly, '65. 

Miss Jennie Slieldon . . Sept. '65. 

Miss Marion Sears Oct. '69. 

Mrs. M. Dean Aue-. 72. 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 



93 



TTLEE STREET. 

Miss A. S. Jewett Aug. 'G6. 

Miss S. H. Whitney. . .Aug-. '67. 
Miss Mary J. Bragg. . .June, '68. 
Miss E. Gushing Feb. '71. 

POINT L0B03. 

Wellington Gordon '71. 

WEST END PRIMAEY. 

Miss A. M. Dore Oct. '64. 

Mrs. Louisa Carter. . .June, '65. 

Mr. S. A. White Oct. '66. 

Mr. A. L. Mann June, '67. 

Mr. EobertDesty July, '67. 

Mr. W. W. Holder . . .July, '68. 

Mr. J. W. Lannon Aug. '69. 

Mr. Chas. F. True. .March, '70. 

Mr. C. H. Ham Aug. '70. 

Mr. W. W. Stone Feb. '73. 

Mr. Selden Sturgess. . . Sept. '75. 

FAIRMOUNT PRIMARY. 

Miss M. A. Salisbury. .Sept. '64. 
Miss A. M. Manning. .Jan. '65. 
Miss A. C. Bowen. . . .June, '65. 
Mr. E. D. Humphrey. June, 'G6. 



FAIRMOUNT FBIMXRY— Continued. 

Mr. Philip Prior June, '67. 

Mrs. T. J. Nevins Aug. '67. 

Miss Susie Carey July, '68. 

Mr. Albert Lyser Oct. '68. 

Mr. Geo. B. Robertson . Aug. '70. 

Mr. J. W. Lannon Oct. '70. 

Mr. J. C. Robertson. . .Nov. '71. 
Mr. J. W. Anderson. . .Oct. '73. 

Mr. H. P. Carlton Oct. '74. 

Mr. W. W. Stone Aug. '75. 

OCEAN HOUSE. 

Mrs. M. McGilvery July, '66. 

Mr. Albert Lyser June, '68. 

Mr. W. A. Robertson. .Nov. '68. 

Mr. John Fox April, '69. 

Mr. John A. Moore. . .June, '69. 

Mr. W. Gordon Dec. '69. 

Miss A. M. Murphy. . .Sept. '70. 
Mr. Jas. Dwyer Feb. '73. 

KOE AND TEMPLE. 

Mrs. E. Foster '75. 

JACKSON STREET. 

Mrs. B. F. Moore '75. 



Evening ScJiools. — An evening scliool was opened, Aug. 1856, 
Ahira Holmes, principal. James Denman, John Swett, and John 
Hammill volunteered their services as assistants until the 
school was established. This school continued with from 100 
to 200 pupils until 1869, when John Swett was elected Principal. 

The school was then regularly graded, was opened in the 
Lincoln building, was made free to adults, and in three months 
the attendance swelled to 900. A commercial class and an 
industrial drawing class were soon organized. In 1871, Mr. 
Swett resigned and was succeeded by W^illiam A. Eobertson, 
the present Principal. 



94 



SCHOOL LEGISLATION. 



6. HISTORICAL STATISTICAL TABLE OF THE SAN FRAN- 
CISCO SCHOOLS, 1852-76. 



YEAKS. 


TOTAL EXPENSE. 


AVERAGE 

DAILY 

ATTENDANCE. 


NUMBEK 

OP 

TEACHERS. 


1352 


$23,125 00 
35,040 00 
159,249 00 
136,580 00 
125,064 00 
92,955 00 
104,808 00 
134,731 00 
156,407 00 
158,855 00 
134,567 00 
178,929 00 
228,411 00 
346,862 00 
361,668 00 
507,822 00 
415,839 00 
400,842 00 
526,625 90 
705,116 00 
668,262 00 
611,818 00 
689,022 00 
707,445 36 

$7,610,043 86 


445 

1,182 

1,272 

1,638 

2,516 

2,155 

2,521 

2,829 

2,837 

3,377 

3,786 

4,389 

5,229 

6,718 

8,131 

10,177 

11,871 

13,113 

15,394 

16,978 

18,272 

18,530 

19,434 

21,014 


15 


1853 


16 


1854 


19 


1855 


29 


1856 


61 


1857 


60 


1858 


67 


1859 


75 


1860 


68 


1861 


73 


1862 


82 


1863 


94 


1864 


108 


1865 


138 


1866 


206 


1867 

1868 

1869 

1870 


253 
285 
326 
371 


1871 

1872 


416 

480 


1873 

1874 


506 
510 


1875 


552 






Total 











7. SPECIAL SCHOOL STATISTICS, SAN FRANCISCO. 

Estimated population, 1875 234,000 

Number of census children, 5 to 17 37,583 

Number of pupils enrolled in public schools 31,128 

Averao-e daily attendance 21,014 

Number attendin^f private and church schools 6,094 

Enrolled in High Schools 702 



AND SCHOOL REPORTS. 95 

Enrolled Jin Grammar Schools 6,055 

'" Primary Schools 22,158 

" Evening Schools 2,213 

Teachers (men, 63; women, 447) — total 510 

Whole number of classes 449 

Expenditures , $700,147 

Tax roll of the city $264,000,000 

Estimated value of school property $3,367,000 

CLASSES AND TEACHEES. 

Number of classes in the High Schools 17 

Number of Grammar Classes (average, 50 each) 108 

Number of Primary Classes (average, 55 each) 304 

Number of Evening Classes (average, 40 each) 20 

Total number of classes 449 

Total number of Principals of different schools 47 

High Schools, 2; Grammar Schools, 12; Mixed Schools, 
9; Primary Schools, 24. 
Number of Principals of schools not required to teach a class . . 25 

Males, 12; Females, 13. 
Number of Vice-Principals 16 

Males, 8; Females, 8. 
Number of teachers in High Schools 22 

Males, 10; Females, 12. 
Number of teachers in Grammar Schools 129 

Males, 27; Females, 102. 
Number of teachers in Primary Schools 325 

Male, 1; Females, 324. 
Number of teachers in Evening Schools 23 

Males, 20; Females, 3. 
Number of teachers of German and French 22 

German, 13; French, 9. 

Teacher of Latin and Greek 1 

Number of special teachers 11 

Music, 6; Drawing, 5. 

Total number of teachers 510 



96 TEACHEES' CONVENTIONS 



PART II. 



I. TEACHERS' CONVENTIONS AND INSTITUTES. 



I. FIRST STATE TEACHERS' CONVENTION. 

The first State Teachers' Convention, called by State Super- 
intendent Hubbs, was held in the city of San Francisco, Dec. 
2G-28, 1854, Snpt. Hubbs presiding. No roll of members ap- 
pears on the manuscript minutes, but about 100 teachers, and 
other persons interested in school matters, from various parts 
of the State, were in attendance. 

Col. E. D. Baker was introduced to the convention, and 
made an eloquent address on the subject of general education, 
and painted in glowing language the future of California. Ke- 
marlvs were made by Piev. M. C. Briggs, Rev. John E. Benton, 
and Dr. Gibbons. Dr. Winslow read an address on the "Use 
of the Bible in Pviblic Schools," and the Eev. S. Y. Blakesly 
one on "Phonography in School." 

On the second day J. M. Buffiugton, of Stockton, made a 
report, which was adopted, recommending the appointment of 
a committee of seven, to make immediate arrangements for 
organizing a State Institute. John S. Hittell introduced a 
resolution, which was adopted, providing for the appointment 
of a committee to memorialize the Legislature on the subject 
of libraries. Mr. Freeman Gates moved the appointment of a 
committee to report a State series of text-books. Essays on 
the management of primar}' schools were read by Mrs. Hazle- 
ton, Mrs. Clapp, Mrs. Williams, Miss Allj^n, and Miss Austin. 
Mr. Wells, of Sacramento, read an essay on the "General 
Management of Schools," and Mr. Phillips, of Stockton, on 
the "Free School System." Mr. Buffiugton, of Stockton, de- 
livered an address on "Education," and Sherman Day spoke 



AND INSTITUTES. 97 

ou tlie same subject. John Swett read an address on the sub- 
ject of "Elocution in the Common Schools," and J. 0. Morrill 
an able address on "Unclassified Schools." 

The proceedings of this Convention were characterized by 
a good degree of interest; the essays and addresses were gen- 
erally able; but no improvements in school law worth mention- 
ing were recommended, and the convention left no mark on the 
educational history of the State. 

2. SECOND STATE TEACHERS' CONVENTION. 

The second State Teachers' Convention met at Benicia, Aug. 
12, 1856, Supt. Hubbs presiding. 

William Sherman, from the Committee on Text-Books, re- 
ported a series recommended for general use. 

Gen. Wool being introduced to the meeting, made a brief 
speech, in which he coipplimented the ladies, and said that all 
the greatest men owed their education and the formation of 
their characters principally to women. 

Mr. Morrill offered a resolution in favor of reading the Bible 
in the public schools, which, after an exciting debate, was 
tabled by 21 to 16. 

Essays were read by Mr. J. C. Morrill, on "Corporal Pun- 
ishment;" by Mr. Monroe, on "Thorough Training;" by Mr. 
Wells, on "Course of Studies;" and by Mrs. Hill, on the 
"Mission of Females as Teachers." 

The convention was not largely attended, only 60 members 
being present. No important measures were acted on, and the 
convention gave no renewed impulse to the interests of educa- 
tion. 

3. FIRST STATE INSTITUTE. 

The first State Institute, called by State Superintendent 
Moulder, met in the city of San Francisco, May 27, 1861, and 
continued in session five days, with a total attendance of 250 
members. The Legislature of the previous year had made 
an appropriation of $3000 for the purpose of aiding State In- 
stitutes. 

In his address, Mr. Moulder stated the plan of proceedings 
which devoted the morning sessions to regular Institute lec- 
tures, and the afternoon sessions to a convention; that the adop- 



98 teachers' conventions 

tion of a State series of text-books was one important measure 
to be acted upon; recommended the appointment of committees 
on school laws and State Normal School; and summed up the 
improvements made in the school laws during a period of four 
years. 

George W. Minns delivered an address on "Methods of 
Teaching." 

Mr. Swett, who was appointed to present the subject of 
"Object Teaching" and "Gymnastics," introduced first an 
object lesson, and then a gymnastic class from the Rincon 
School, which went through with double and single dumb-bell 
exercises, free gymnastics, calisthenics, wands, and Indian club 
exercises. 

James Denman delivered an address on "School Discipline." 

Mr. Sparrow Smith moved that a committee of three teachers 
be appointed to report on establishing a State Teachers' Jour- 
nal, and Messrs. Smith, Gates and Minus were appointed. 

George W. Minns was made Chairman of a Standing Com- 
mittee on Text-Books, to report at the next Institute. Mr. 
Smith, of Sacramento, from the Committee on State school 
journal, reported in favor of appointing a standing committee 
to devise ways and means for publishing such a journal, and 
after the appointment of this committee, the Institute adjourned 
sine die. The proceedings were published in pamphlet form. 

4. SECOND STATE INSTITUTE. 

The Second State Institute Avas convened in Sacramento by 
Superintendent Moulder, September 23, 1862, and continued in 
session three days, Avith an attendance of 100 members. 

Superintendent Moulder made a brief introductory address. 
Mr. George W. Bonnell delivered an address on the "Art of 
Memory," illustrated by a pupil from his school. 

Mr. Minus, Chairman of Standing Committee on Text-Books, 
made a lengthy report on that subject. Union resolutions were 
unanimously and enthusiastically adopted. 

Mr. Pierce, of Yolo, introduced a resolution in favor of a 
laAV requiring a uniform State series of text-books, which after 
a long debate was passed by a vote of 26 to 24. 

Mr. Sparrow Smith introduced a resolution, which was 
adopted, to appoint a standing committee of twelve on State 
Teachers' Journal. 



AND INSTITUTES. 99 

Mr, Minns delivered a very eloquent and able lecture on 
"Moral Instruction." 

8upt. Moulder then closed the Institute with the following 
remarks : 

Before putting the question to adjourn sine die, I desire to 
express my earnest thanks for the kindness and consideration you 
have exhibited toward your presiding officer, and more especially 
for the warm and flattering terms in which you have seen fit to 
sj)eak of my official action during the past six years. 

It is deeply gratifying to find that I have met the approval of 
those who ought best to know hoAV I have i:)erformed the duties of 
my office, and whose good opinion is therefore most to be desired. 

^ H= :^. ifi -iip. ^y. ^. 

My connection with you, fellow- workers in the cause, has always 
been harmonious and agreeable. In retiring to private life, I shall 
retain a pleasing recollection of our long association. From the 
bottom of my heart I wish you all a prosperous and happy career. 
Thanking j-ou again for your unvarying courtesy and your kind 
expressions of ajDproval, I bid you farewell, and declai'e this con- 
vention adjourned sine die. 

The proceedings were published in pamphlet form. 

STATE CERTIFICATES. 

At this Institute, the State Board of Examination, consisting 
of the State Superintendent and six County Superintendents, 
held an oral examination and issued 5 State grammar school 
certificates and 12 "Mixed School" certificates, valid for two 
years. 

5. THIRD STATE INSTITUTE. 

The third State Institute, called by State Superintendent 
Swett, assembled in San Francisco, May 4, 1863, in the New 
Music Hall, the largest and finest hall in the city. Four hun- 
dred and sixty-three registered members were in attendance. 
The daily sessions were also attended by hundreds of other per- 
sons, and at the evening lectures the hall was filled to its utmost 
capacity. In the circular announcing this Institute is found the 
following on the benefits of Institutes : 

No argument is needed to j^rove the great advantages resulting 
from Teachers' Institutes. They are not intended as substitutes 
for Normal Schools, nor can they educate teachers to the business 
of their profession ; yet they serve the most admirable purpose of 
improving those who are only temporarily engaged in the profes- 
sion, of furnishing those who are not systematically trained, with 
the best methods of instruction, and of increasing the efficiency of 
professional teachers. 



100 TEACHEKS' CONVENTIONS 

The exercises of au Institute involve an outline view of subjects 
relating to the proper mode of imparting instruction, jDresent the 
latest information regarding the progress of education in our own 
and in other countries, and aiibrd an occasion for experienced teach- 
ers to present practical views, which cannot be obtained from books. 
The best thoughts and best acquirements of the most original teach- 
ers are elicited and thrown into the common stock of professional 
knowledge. They influence public opinion, by bringing the teach- 
er's labors more prominently before the community, and by promot- 
ing a higher estimate of the Common School in its vital relation to 
society and the State. The routine of a teacher's daily life limits 
his influence to the narrow sphere of the school-room; but the pro- 
ceedings of an Institute are carried by the press to thousands of 
families in the State, and his views become an active element in 
public opinion. No obstacle to the progress of Free Schools is so 
formidable as the apathy and indifference of the people. Eloquence 
the most winning, and logic the most convincing, alike fall dead 
upon the ears of those who see nothing in the establishment of 
Comirion Schools but an increase of the rates of taxation. But let 
the true relation of schools to propertj^ be once clearly seen, let it 
be generally known that the value of i:)roperty increases with the 
excellence of the schools, and real estate cheerfully consents to be 
taxed, from motives of self-interest. The axiom in our American 
system of Free Schools, that it is the boundeii duty of the property 
of the State to provide for the education of all the children of the 
State, rich and poor alike, is in accordance with the spirit of our 
Government, and should be insisted on by the jieople to the very 
fullest extent. If the people of our State are indifferent to Public 
Schools, it is only because more absorbing topics engage their atten- 
tion, while the educational interests are not urgently and persist- 
entl}^ presented to their view. 

Association in some form is one of the most powerful agencies of 
the times. In conventions of industry and arts, mind is dignifying 
the labor of the artisan. Farmers have their agricultural societies, 
and hold their annual fairs, in which are exhibited the best stock, 
the choicest varieties of grain and vegetables, the most approved 
agricultural implements, and the best labor-saving machines. The 
inventions, improvements, and discoveries of one, thus become the 
common property of all. 

And while Institutes have accomplished so much in introdiacing 
better methods of instruction, they are no less beneficial in their 
effects on the mental habits of the teachers. Constantly imparting 
to minds inferior to his own, his faculties exercised in one direction 
only, his full strength seldom called forth, he needs the stimulus of 
contact with his equals, or superiors. A vigorous contest in a new 
arena lessens his self-conceit, and brightens his faculties. 

It is a common notion that the occupation of teaching makes a 
man narrow-minded, or leads him into eccentricities, which stick to 
him like burs ; but it is not true of a teacher who has in him the 
elements of living scholarship. He may, it is true, run in the 
grooves of daily habit, until he becomes a machine for dragging the 
dead weight of a school; but, on the other hand, he may, while im- 



AND INSTITUTES. 101 

parting to others, himself drink from the perennial fountain of true 
scholarship. 

But no occupation is more exhausting to nervous force and men- 
tal energy than teaching ; and the teacher needs, above all others, 
the cheering influences of j)leasant social intercourse with those 
whose tastes and habits are similar to his own. 

No w^onder, then, that the schoolmaster, buried in some obscure 
district, surrounded only by the raw material of mind, which he is 
trying to weave into a finer texture, without access to books, his 
motives either misunderstood or aspersed, his labors often seemingly 
barren of results, his services half paid, with no amusement but the 
collection of delinquent rate bills, and no study but "how to make 
both ends meet;" no wonder that he sometimes becomes moody 
and disheartened, loses his enthusiasm, and feels that the very sky 
above him is one vast blackboard, on which he is condemned to 
work out the sum total of his existence. 

He only needs the social intercourse of institutes, and the cordial 
sympathy of fellow -teachers, there evoked, to make the heavens 
glow with hope. There he finds his difficulties are shared by 
others, his labors are aj^preciated, and his vocation respected. 

The duties of the teacher are not limited to the school-room ; his 
influence should extend to society around him. If teachers fold 
their arms in listless apathy, it is not strange that public opinion is 
" dead as a door nail" to their demands. There was a time when 
a man taught school because he w^as fit for nothing else ; but all 
such fossils lie buried in the strata of past educational epochs. 
Now, a living man is asked for, not an abridgment of mathematics. 

"While a State Institute is designed more especially for the teach- 
ers of public schools, jn'ofessors and instructors in colleges and pri- 
vate institutions of learning are hardly less interested in the success 
and influence of this educational meeting. The interests of colleges 
and collegiate institutions are intimately connected with those of 
the public schools. All those who acquire an elementary education 
in the common schools, necessarily seek in private institutions of 
learning to complete a full course of instruction. The better the 
public schools, the larger will be the number of those whose minds 
shall be awakened to pursue a course of study beyond the range of 
the common school. Before our higher institutions can produce 
disciplined thinkers, and thoroughly trained professional men, the 
elementary schools must be carriecl to a corresponding degree of 
excellence. 

As teachers, we are debtors to our profession; and our patriotism 
ought to incite us to an earnest devotion to the advancement of our 
system of Free Schools; a system essential to the existence of a 
free people, and the permanence of a free government. 

It is our duty to cultivate in our schools a higher regard for free- 
dom, a sounder faith in the fundamental principles upon which a 
representative government is based, and a higher estimate of the 
incalculable blessings conferred by the Constitution — firm in the 
conviction that our country is working out for the future, amid the 
present storm, a higher order of civilization and a nobler conception 
of liberty. 



102 teachers' conventions 

The course of lectures was as follows: 

George W. Minns : Physical Geography of the United States. 
Prof. J. D. Whitney: Character of Humboldt. Eev. Thomas 
Starr King: James Russell Lowell, or the " Bigelow Papers.' 
John Swett: Duties of the State to Public Schools. Prof. S. I. 
C. Swezey : State Normal Schools, and how to teach English 
Composition. Rev. S. H. Wiley : The Place and Relations of 
the College in our System of Education. H. P. Carlton: Object 
Teaching. D. C. Stone: Grammar. Bernhard Marks: Waste 
in School. Supt. Swett: Common Sense applied to Teaching. 
John E. Benton : Elocution. John S. Hittell : Defects in Teach- 
ing. Dr. F. W. Hatch : Need of Good Teachers. Hubert Bur- 
gess: Linear Drawing. Ahira Holmes: Report of State Normal 
School. 

The proceedings were published in a neat pamphlet form of 
166 pages, and an edition of 2400 copies was distributed among 
teachers and school officers. 

One of the most important results of the Institute was the 
action taken in favor of a State tax for the support of schools. 

The State Superintendent urged this measure in a lengthy 
address. 

The recommendation for a State tax met the approval of the 
Institute; and the State Superintendent was instructed to pre- 
pare a form of petition to the Legislature on the subject, and to 
circulate it in every school district in the State. 

The following form was accordingly prepared, circulated and 
signed by more than six thousand voters : 

PETITION FOR STATE SCHOOL TAX. 

To the Honorable th6 Member^s of the Legislaim-e of the State of Cali- 
fornia: 
Whereas, We believe that it is the duty of a representative gov- 
ernment to maintain public schools as an act of self-preservation, 
and that the pro^Derty of the State should be taxed to educate the 
children of the State; and whereas, the i^reseut School Fund is 
wholly inadequate to sustain a system of free schools; we, the un- 
dersigned, qualified electors of the State of California, respectfully 
ask your honorable body to levy a special State tax of half a mill on 
the dollar during- the fiscal years eighteen hundred and sixty-four 
and eighteen hundred and sixty-five, the proceeds of the same to be 
disbursed in the same manner as the present State School Fund. 

The next important measure was the action relating to a State 
educational journal. 



AND INSTITUTES. 



103 



B.C. Stone, of Marysville, from the standing committee of 
the previous year, reported against the practicability of starting 
sucli a journal. 

Sparrow Smith, also of the committee, in a minority report, 
dissented, and urged an attempt to establish one. 

Professor Swezey, J. L. Wilbur, J. C. Pelton, George Tait, 
James Stratton and Superintendent Swett, spoke in favor of a 
journal, and Dr. Gibbons and Mr. Eodgers rose in opposition. 

A committee, consisting of Messrs. Smith, Tait and Seymour, 
was appointed, who reported in favor of establishing a State 
educational journal, called the California Teacher, to be pub- 
lished at one dollar per annum, and to be edited by a board of 
resident editors, consisting of John Swett, George Tait and 
George W. Minns. Mr. Minns declined to serve, and nomi- 
nated Mr. Swezey to fill his place. The first number of this 
journal was issued in July following. 

The subject of a State professional society being brought 
before the Institute, the plan was advocated by Kev. John E. 
Benton, Theodore Bradley and others. 

A committee was appointed, with Mr. Bradley chairman, who 
made a report, and requested all interested in forming such a 
society to meet after the final adjournment of the Institute. 

A State Educational Society was soon afterwards formed on 
the plan recommended. 

STATE SEEIES OF TEXT-BOOKS. 

The revised school law having made provision for the adop- 
tion and compulsory use of some uniform State series of text- 
books, no small share of the time of the Institute was taken up 
in discussing the merits of school-books. The Institute voted 
to recommend to the State Board of Education the following 
series, which was afterwards adopted by the State Board with 
hardly any variation: Willson's Eeaders and Spellers; Eaton's 
and Kobinson's Arithmetics; Cornell's and Warren's Geogra- 
phies; Quackenbos' Grammar and History of the United States. 

STATE EXAMINATIONS. 

One hundred teachers entered the examination for State 
diplomas and certificates. The examination was conducted in 
writing, by means of printed questions, and nearly three thou- 
sand pages of manuscript were carefully examined and credited 
by the Board. 



104 teachers' conventions 

state educational diplomas, valid for six j^ears, were granted 
to the following teachers : T. C. Barker, Stephen G. Nye, 
Bernhard Marks, T. W. J. Holbrook, Joseph W. Josselyn, 
Thomas Ewing, William K. Kowell, Cyrus C. Cummiugs, 
Edward P. Batchelor. 

State certificates were issued as follows : 

First grade certificates, valid for four years 7 

Second grade certificates, valid for two years 10 

Tliird grade certificates, valid for two 3'ears 20 

Whole number, including diplomas 4G 

RESULTS. 

Aside from the incidental labors and benefits of the Insti- 
tute, its practical and solid results may be slimmed up as follows: 

First. A State educational journal; 

Second. Action recommending a State school tax; 

Third. A State educational and professional society; 

Fourth. Adoption of a State series of text-books; 

Fifth. The granting of a large number of State diplomas and 
certificates; 

Sixth. The publication of a valuable volume of proceedings 
and lectures. 

6. FOURTH STATE INSTITUTE. 

A State Teachers' Institute was held in the city of San Fran- 
cisco from September 19-24, 1865. No appropriation in aid of 
such Institutes was granted by the State Legislature in 1863; 
but owing to the liberality of the Board of Education of San 
Francisco, which tendered the use of the Lincoln Schoolhouse, 
and paid the bills for gas, the State Superintendent was enabled 
to hold one without any expense whatever to the State. 

The Institute -was convened in September, during the vacation 
of the city schools, that being the only time in the year Avhen 
the Lincoln Hall could be used for such a purpose. Notwith- 
standing the fact that many of the schools in the interior had 
just opened their new terms for the year, in consequence of 
which the teachers were unable to attend, three hundred teach- 
ers from various parts of the State were present. 

The most important purpose for which it was convened was 
the holding of an examination of applicants for State diplomas 



AND INSTITUTES. 105 

and certificates. How well that purpose was accomplislied is 
set forth in another part of this report. 

The following lectures were delivered before the Institute: 
"The State and the School," John E. Benton; "School Law," 
John Swett; " Geography of California," Charles Russell Clarke; 
"A Practical Education," Prof. Kellogg; "Phj^sical Training," 
Ebenezer Knowlton ; " Ph5'^siology and Hygiene," H. P. Carlton; 
"Force," Dr. Washington Ayer; "Comparison between the 
European and American Systems of Education," Beruhard 
Marks; " Moral Training," Eev. S. H. Willey; "Modern Lan- 
guages in Public Schools," Ralph Keeler; "Education," Dr. 
Luckey. 

Several of these addresses were published in the CaUfornia 
Teacher. The subjects of "School Libraries," "Course of 
Study for Ungraded Schools," and "Teachers' Life Diplomas," 
were discussed at length. 

A committee of all the Count}' Superintendents present at the 
Institute acted in detail on the sections of a bill of amendments 
to the school law, and, with a few immaterial changes, approved 
the provisions submitted to the committee by the Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction. 

An evening ticket lecture was delivered by J. Ross Browne, 
about " Queer People and Queer Places," which netted the sum 
of $54 for the benefit of the California Teacher. Also an evening 
lecture on "Natural Philosophy," by Professor Minns, of the 
State Normal School. 

The California Steam Navigation Company gave all members 
of the Institute /ree passes to and from Sail Francisco, over their 
several routes of travel, and the railroad lines gave free return 
passes to Institute members. 

7. FIFTH AND SIXTH INSTITUTES. 

The Fifth Institute was held in San Francisco May 7-11, 1867, 
and attended by 500 teachers. Addresses as follows: 

Supt. John Swett: "Educational Progress." D.C.Stone: 
"Self-Improvement." Rev. C. G. Ames: "The Teacher's Mo- 
tives." Ralph Keeler: "The Oldest Scholar." Rev. John E. 
Benton: "Readiness." William White: "Teachers and Pa- 
rents." 

7 



106 teachers' conventions and institutes. 

The Sixth Institute convened at Lincoln Hall, May 4r-7, 1869. 
Addresses were delivered as follows : 

State Supt. Fitzgerald: "Educational Condition." Prof. 
John Le Conte: "Nebula Hypothesis," Geo. W. Simonton: 
"True Education." John Swett: "Arithmetic." 

The subject of "Text-Books" was discussed and reported 
upon. 

8. SEVENTH AND EIGHTH INSTITUTES. 

The Seventh State Institute met in San Francisco, Sept. 
13-16, 1870. Addresses and lectures were given by Supt. 
Fitzgerald; Prof. E. S. Carr, on "Air," and "Industrial Ed- 
ucation;" Mr. Marks, on "Mathematics." J. P. Garlick: 
"Ungraded Schools." Miss Dolliver: A Poem. Dr. Schell- 
liouse: "Grammar." Miss Fowler: "Defects in Education." 
Dr. Luckey: "State Normal School." Prof. Joseph Le Conte: 
"Universal Law of Cyclical Movement." 

The Eighth and last Institute met in San Francisco, Nov. 
7-10, 1871. Supt. Fitzgerald delivered an annual address. 
Lectures were given as follows : 

Dr. Schellhouse: "The Art of Teaching." Dr. Logan: 
" School Ventilation and Hygiene." Dr. Gibbons: "Hygiene 
of Dress." Miss Dolliver: "Cobwebs and Brooms." Dr. E. 
S. Carr: " The Educational Work of Sarmiento." 

The discussions were, in general, on unimportant topics. 
This was the last of the State Institutes, the Legislature of 
1872 having cut off the annual appropriation of $250 for 
expenses. 

g. STATE ASSOCIATION. 

The State Board of Education called, by resolution, a con- 
vention of teachers at San Jose, June, 1875, but the attend- 
ance was small. 

A State Teachers' Association was organized, but the pro- 
ceedings were of no special consequence. 



institut;e addbesses. 107 



11. INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 



I. INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION/ 

3£r. President and Teachers: During tlie past few weeks the world 
has been watching the sudden, and to the unobservant eye, almost 
miraculous transfer of power and prestige from one of the great 
leading European States to another. A quiet, home-loving practical 
people have suddenly developed a vast amount of latent force, which 
it- puzzles us to name. Is it brains versus bullets, science versus 
sentiment, that awaits the arbitrament of war, or a territorial ques- 
tion only ? Somehow or other, ideas and education have gone up 
in the scale as they never did before in any ten weeks of human 
history. 

We'^are all foolish enough to fix our eyes upon the two central 
figures of the strife; but neither Teuton fox nor Gallic wolf have 
had very much to do with the results which so astonish and appal 
the world. 

If Prussia, so far victorious, has been busy rearing a nation of 
soldiers, she has done it openly, in the face of the world. She has 
made every soldier a fortification by the completeness of an educa- 
tional system which makes the most of whatever a man is born with. 
That system is on exhibition, not only of its value for defense, but 
its moral power, its temperance and self-control. Whatever the 
final political result may be, it is certain that not one Prussian who 
has fallen has felt himself a tool or a dupe, played upon by superior 
cunning and selfishness. 

There is not a soldier of that grand army who has had less than 
ten years' schooling (most of them have had from fifteen to eighteen 
years); their bodies have been as carefully trained as their minds, 
and b}^ teachers who make this their life business. 

What would you expect from a country that has an army of three 
million children at school, whether they wish to go or not and 
whether their parents wish them to go or not, and for a Government 
that provides for this largely by devoting to it the heaviest outlay of 
its resources ? 

W^ould you expect Prussia to be beaten, when you know that 
until the year 1831, France had made no provision for the instruc- 
tion of her millions, had no public elementary schools when Guizot 
sent Victor Cousin to study the school system of Prussia, with a 
view to its adoption ? 

Power is cumulative, and although Napoleon III has nobly fostered 
education and science, he started at a disadvantage. Poor, be- 
leagured Paris trembles to-day in greater terror of the ignorant and 

* Abstract of a lecture before the State Teachers' Institute, Septeraber, 1870, 
by Ezra S. Ciirr, M.D. 



108 INSTITUTE AUDEESSES. 

therefore brutalized rabble, shut in to watch and wait with her 
her deliverance or her doom, than the foe outside her gates. 

I confess I am anxious that our own Government should keep on 
the best of terms with those Germans. I should dread a tyranny 
like that of Wurtemburg, which permits no child to learn a trade, 
enter any occujoation, or receive any j^ay for any service whatsoever, 
until he has answered the demands of the school laAV. Imagine the 
consternation which the sudden enforcement of such a regulation 
would cause in America, in low and in high places! As an offset to 
this terror, imagine what it would be for you, teachers, to be 
enrolled among the " high mightinesses," to be ranked and consid- 
ered as the most valuable civil servitors of the State, with honorable 
compensation and jvist promotions for your terms of service, and a 
comfortable pension when you are old. 

Do not think I am praising overmuch, and covertly keeping back 
a part of the truth. Germany has outdone the world in education, 
and we have outdone Germany in just one respect! We have dis- 
covered and put in jjractice a great natural law of education, viz., 
that women are better teachers than men. And they only need the 
higher education from which tliey have been so long excluded to 
make their superiority manifest. 

The educational creed of Prussia does not take long in the reading. 

Article one declares the sacred right of every individual to the 
best means of development. 

Article two, the value to the State, to her wealth, power and civ- 
ilization, of universal education. 

Article three declares the realization of this impossible without 
the agency of a great profession, acting concertedly, wisely and 
zealously together, and that the members of this profession must be 
made to feel their position honorable, secure and independent. 

Unless you are dissenters, I ask you to listen patiently to some- 
thing I have to say about industrial education, for your help is very 
much needed in creating a desire for it. 

On this new field of California, where we have only begun our 
work, and where there is only a glimmering ajiprehension on the 
part of the public of what this business of education is, and what it 
is worth, the informing and jDropelling influence must go out from 
the body of teachers themselves. Let us get a clear idea of the 
scope and value of our work, and of the wants of the people; let us, 
with firm and strong convictions of what is essential to the growth 
and prosperity of the State, be prepared to meet the most unin- 
formed with some practical, tangible knowledge of the things with 
which they have to deal, and we shall create a public opinion, a 
demand for education, that will advance quite as fast as we can keep 
up with it. Our political system is of such a kind as to require this 
kind of effort. And our public school system, from the university 
to the primary school, must be a unit in motive and in method, in 
this respect. 

The question has become one of vital importance to the nation, 
" How shall we educate our youth so that there shall be more farm- 
ers and mechanics in the land, and how shall we raise these pursuits 
to the rank they deserve in the hierarchy of industries ? " It is in 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 109 

vain to eulogize a calling whose votaries forsake it with every oppor- 
tunity, and whose children turn from it with disgust. Congress 
might give ever}' acre of the public domain to found Agricultural 
Colleges, making them not only free, but giving a bonus of land as 
a reward for attendance, and still their halls will remain empty, 
until the relations of agriculture to human welfare and .to human 
nature are understood and carried into practice — until the farmer, 
out of his sense of privation, loss, failure and onesidedness, shall 
resolve that his children be as carefully cultured as his fields; that 
they shall grow up in pleasant homes, and lay up, if not dollars and 
cents, capital for after-pleasures of thought and memory. 

Let us consider for a little wherein this business of agriculture 
fails to meet the higher demands of human nature; and why, in 
California, we are looking to the lower classes' of foreigners for the 
permanent tillers of the soil. 

The educational world has been aroused within the last few years 
to find a remedy for the growing aversion of American youth for 
jDursuits most vital to the public welfare. What are the influences 
tending to the demoralization of young men by leading them to look 
to speculative enterprises, instead of steady industry, as a means of 
sup23ort? Is it the monotony of country life, or a want of the right 
kind of education? 

How shall we create in this country, as there is in Europe, a 
higher attachment to the land than springs from a sordid self-inter- 
est, and make our paternal acres represent here, as they do in older 
lands, social standing, intelligence, leisure and culture? 

By educating our 3'outh, boys and girls, into a respect for these 
pursuits, and by multiplying in every possible way the social enjoy- 
ments and embellishments of country life. 

The disadvantages of agricultural pursuits were clearly stated, 
and the remedies by which they can be overcome; social and isolated 
industries and their results were contrasted, and the methods of 
uniting the abstract and practical sides of industrial education fully 
presented. In a rapid survey of European progress, we were shown 
to what the immense recent development of Prussian power is 
mainly due. 

A concise report of what has been done in America by Michigan 
and other States, what has been done by Congress, and what Cali- 
fornia will be able to accomplish for industrial education, if her 
people appreciate in any just degree the value of that system of free 
instruction which, from the common school to the university, guaran- 
tees to every child the general culture and special training necessary 
to energize and economize, to lighten and enlighten all labor, until 
the measure of usefulness shall come to be the measure of greatness. 



2. DUTIES OF THE STATE TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS.* 

At a time like the present, when the nation is one vast camp of 
instruction for armed men; when argument has ended in the right 
of appeal to trial b^^ battle; when the one absorbing topic of each 
successive day is the brief telegram, telling of victories won, or of 

* Bead before the State Teachers' Institute, 18G3 , 



110 INSTITUTE ADDRESSED. 

hope deferred; wlien our eyes turn with longing guzo across the 
Sierras to catch the first Lreakiiig of the war clouds which fringe 
their sunimits^it might seem, at first thought, that a convention 
like this, which waives all military and j^olitical considerations, and 
relates only to the peaceful and almost unseen workings of the pub- 
lic schools, would he inopportune, and out of harmony with the 
spirit of the times. 

But when we stop to ponder, and consider the vital relations 
which ])ublic schools hold to our national life; when we consider 
the agency which they have had in supplying the intelligence and 
the pattiotism of the army; when we begin to feel, amid the terri- 
ble realities of war, that the schools have been the nurseries of 
loyalty, and the lack of them, the right arm of treason; when we 
begin to fully realize that the trite truism, " Tlie only safety of a Re- 
publican Government is in the virtue and intelligence of the peoi^le," 
is no abstraction — there is a deep significance in this meeting, and 
in all such conventions, as concerning the future stability of the 
Government, and the integrity, power, glory and unity of the nation. 
Constitutions and laws may be becpieathed by one generation to its 
successors; but patriotism, intelligence and morality die with each 
generation, and involve the necessity of continual culture and edu- 
cation. Public opinion, the sum of the intelligence of the citizens of 
the nation, constructs and modi lies all constitutions, and breathes 
vitality into all laws by which the people are governed. 

Let the public opinion of one generation become demoralized by 
ignorance, or by passion resulting from ignorance, and any consti- 
tution is like gossamer to restrain and bind it. 

It is an axiom in education that the great majority of the people 
can be well educivted only by a system of Free Public Schools, sup- 
]K)rt(Hl by law, in which i\\e properly of the State is taxed to educate 
the children of the State. 

" The first object of a free people," says Daniel Webster, " is the 
preservation of their liberty." In a government Avhei-e the people 
are not only in theory the source of all jiowers, but in actual prac- 
tice are called upon to administer the laws, it is evident that some 
degree of education is indisjjensably necessary to enable them to 
discharge their duties, maintain and administer the laws, and to re- 
tain their constitutional rights. All nations recognize the neces- 
sity of educating the governing classes. In a Government like ours, 
either we must have officers un<pialified for their duties, or we must 
bo ruled by an educated and })rivileged aristocracy, or we must pro- 
vide a system of i)ublic instruction which shall furnish a su])ply of 
intelligent citizens ca]>al)le of discharging their various official trusts 
with honesty and elficien(\v. 

If left to their own unaided efforts, a great majority of the peoj^le 
will fail through want of means to properly educate their children; 
another class, with means at command, will fail through want of in- 
terest. The people, then, can be educated only by a system of Free 
Schools, supported by taxation, and controlled directly by the 
people. 

The earlj'- settlers of our country recognized this vital principle 
by providing by law for Free Schools, and by making schools and 
taxation as inseparably connected as taxation and representation. 



INSTITUTE ADDEESSES. Ill 

The Puritans of Massachusetts Bay had just escaped from a gov- 
ernment which provided only for the education of the higher cLasses; 
which dechared, in the words of Charles the First, that " the peo- 
ple's right was onl}'- to have their life and their goods their own, a 
share in the government being nothing pertaining to them;" and in 
nothing does far-seeing sagacity of those self-reliant men appear 
more conspicuous than in the wise forecast which led them to pro- 
vide for the general diffusion of the elements of knowledge as the 
basis of a principle which is expressed in the Constitution of Massa- 
chusetts, as opposed to the declaration of Charles the First, in the 
following words: " The people of this Commonwealth have the sole 
and exclusive right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign and 
independent State." 

A section of the Massachusetts Colony Laws of 1G42 reads as 
follows : 

" Forasmuch as the good education of children is of singular be- 
hoof and benefit to any Commonwealth; and whereas, many j)arents 
and masters are too indulgent and negligent of their duty in that 
kind; it is ordered that the Selectmen of every town shall have a 
vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbors, to see, first: that 
none of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of Ihe.ir families 
as not io teach, by themselves, or others, their children and apprentices so 
viuch learning as may enable them perfectly to read the English tongue, 
upon i^enalty of twenty shillings for each neglect therein." 

In 1G47, this law was followed by another, to the end, in the 
words of the statute, " that learning may not be buried in the grave of 
our fathers in the Church and the GommomveaWi,," which required ever}' 
town of fifty families to provide a teacher to instruct all the chil- 
dren of the town in reading and writing, and every town of a hun- 
dred families to set up a grammar school, with a teacher compe- 
tent to fit young men for the university; the expense of these schools 
to be borne by the town, or by the parents, as the town should 
determine. 

In 1G92, the law provided that these schools should be supported 
exclusively by tax levied on all the pr-operly of the town. 

The Colony Laws of New Haven, 1665, provided that the "Depu- 
ties of the Court " should have " a vigilant eye " overall parents and 
masters, " that all their children and apprentices, as they grow capa- 
ble, may, through God's blessing, obtain at least so much learning 
as to be able duly to read the Scriptures, and other good and prof- 
itable printed books in the English tongue, being their native 
language.""^ 

If this law was not complied with, the delinquent was fined ten 
shillings; and if after three months the offender failed to comply, 
the fine was doubled; and then the magistrates were empowered to 
take such children and apprentices, and place them till* they became 
of age, "with such others who shall better educate and govern 
them, both for the public conveniency, and for the particular good of 
said children and apprentices." 

In 1669, the Colony of Plymouth passed the following law: 

' ' Forasmuch as the maintenance of good literature doth much tend to 

* Probably the first Aiuericau compulsory school law. 



112 INSTITUTE ADDEESSES. 

the advancement of the iveal and flourishing state of societies and re- 
publics, this Court doth therefore order, that in whatever township 
in this government, consisting of fifty families or upwards, an}' meet 
man shall be obtained to teach a Grammar School, such township 
shall allow at least twelve pounds, to be raised by rate on all the in- 
habitants." 

The following is the old Colonial Connecticut Law for " appoint- 
ing, encouraging and supporting schools:" 

" Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and Eepresentatives, in 
General Court assembled, and by the Authority of the same: That 
Every Town within this Colony, wherein there is but one Ecclesias- 
tical Society, and wherein there are Seventy House Holders or 
Families, or upwards, shall be at least Eleven Months in each Year 
Provided with and shall Keep and Maintain One good and sufficient 
School for the Teaching and Instructing of Youth and Children to 
Read and Write, which School shall be steadily Supplied with, and 
Kept, by a Master, sufficiently and suitably Qualified for that 
Service. 

"And, also, there shall be a Grammar School Set up. Kept and 
constantly maintained in ever}' Head or County town of the several 
Counties, that are, or shall be Made in the Colony, Which shall be 
steadily Kept by some Discreet Person of good Conversation, and 
well Skilled in and Acquainted with the Learned Languages, es- 
pecially Greek and Latin." 

For the sujDport of these schools, a tax of " Forty Shillings" 
upon every "Thousand Pounds in the Lists of the Respective 
Towns," was levied and collected. 

Many of the wealthy counties of California levy, this year, a 
smaller school tax than was paid by the hard-fisted colonists of Con- 
necticut. 

The following preamble to an act shows the germ of our na- 
tional policy of reserving certain sections of public lands for school 
pvarposes : 

"And Whereas, the several Towns and Societies in this Colony, 
by Virtue of an Act of this Court, made in May, in the Year of our 
Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty-Three, Received 
by their Committees Respectively, for that purpose appointed, con- 
siderable Monies, or Bills of Public Credit, Raised by the sale of 
certain ToAvnships, Laid out in the Western lands, then so Called, 
to be Let out, and the Interest thereof. Improved for the Support 
of the Respective Schools aforesaid, for Ever, and to no other Use: 
Be it enacted," etc. 

In 1785 an ordinance respecting the disposition of the public 
lands was introduced into the old Congress, referred to a commit- 
tee, and passed May 20, which provided that the sixteenth section 
of every township should be reserved "for the maintenance of pub- 
lic Schools." 

The celebrated ordinance of 1787, which confirmed the provisions 
of the land ordinance of 1785, further declared that "Morality and 
Knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of 
mankind, Schools, and the 9?im?is q/" Education, shall be forever encour- 
aged." 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 113 

As the results of tliis noble jDolicy, more than fifty millions of 
acres of the public lands have been set apart for the purposes of 
education. 

These few references to Colonial laws show how early in the his- 
tory of our country these two fundamental principles were enun- 
ciated and adopted : That it is the duty of a Republican Government, 
as an act of self-preservation, to educate all classes of the pieople, and 
that the property of the State should be taxed to p)ay for that education. 

Let us consider the first axiom: That it is the duty of a Republican 
Government, as an act of self-preservation, to educate all classes of the 
people. 

In a representative government all forms of constitutional law 
spring from the peojDle, and are changed at Avill by public opinion. 
If that is demoralized, public officers will be bad, and the Govern- 
ment will be bad. If public opinion is ignorant, demagogues will 
warp it to suit partisan purposes. The fountain cannot rise higher 
than its source ; and the administration of the laws will not rise 
above the level of the morality of the masses. 

Consider for a moment the various civil duties a citizen of the 
State may be called upon to perform. First and highest is the duty 
which is attached to the right of elective franchise. Intelligence 
must preside at the ballot-box, or it becomes a partisan machine. 
The elector is virtually a tool and slave just so far as he is ignorant 
of the questions on which he votes. If ignorant voters elect knaves 
to office, the State pays the just penalty of neglecting to educate 
her citizens. Every citizen is liable to be called to the jury-box. 
Are those light questions which twelve men are called upon to de- 
cide ? Questions of life or death, of character or reputation, of for- 
tune, of real estate? Can ignorance and prejudice decide those 
questions legally and equitably ? Would the real estate owner, with 
a hundred thousand dollars at stake, on which, perhaps, he has un- 
willingly paid a school tax, choose to trust the verdict to an illiter- 
ate jury in preference to one educated in the schools which his 
property has in part maintained ? 

Consider, again, all the minor official trusts which an ordinary 
citizen is called upon to fill — district, township, and county offices. 
Taken together, they make up no small share of the administra- 
tion of government. 

In the legislative department, is it safe to elect men poorly edu- 
cated to frame the laws ? Any citizen may aspire to and reach the 
place, and the only safeguard is the general education of all citi- 
zens. And it must be borne in mind that while laws may remain 
unchanged, the intellectual and moral qualifications necessary for 
the discharge of the duties of a citizen of the State cannot be trans- 
mitted, like property, from father to son. They are personal, not 
hereditary, and must be taught anew to each generation. The 
work of the schools is never done, and property can never escape 
continual taxation. This general education of the citizens of the 
State can only be secured by Public Schools. The rich will be 
educated under any circumstances; education -gives power — power, 
an aristocracy. 

But the Public Schools must be of a character which will attract 



114 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

the children of the rich as well as afford an opportunity to the poor. 
Such schools prevent the formation of castes and classes in society. 
The only aristocracy which they recognize is that of talent— an aris- 
tocracy which always commands respect and wields power. Said a 
Boston teacher once, to a visitor: "That boy who has just received 
the iirst prize for scholarship, is the son of a wood-sawyer; and the 
boy who has won the second prize is the son of the Governor of 
Massachusetts." 

It is often objected that Public Schools cannot educate high 
enough. Dr. Bushnell says : 

"The chartered privileges of education furnished by our colleges 
can be more highly valued by no one than myself. But still it 
should be understood that an educated man is a man alive. Many 
a boy who does not know Latin from Dutch, and has never seen 
any university but his mother's and the District School, having at- 
tained to the distinction of a living soul, is, in the highest sense, 
educated. Coixld this, which is the only just view of the case, be 
once established in the public mind, it would do much to encourage 
attempts at self-education, and would greatly endear the system of 
Common Schools. 

"Many years ago, in an obscure country school in Massachusetts, 
an humble, conscientious, but industrious boy was to be seen, and 
it was evident to all that his soul was beginning to act and thirst for 
some intellectual good. He was alive to knowledge. Next we see 
him an apprentice on the shoemaker's bench, with a book spread 
oj^en before him. Next we see him put forth, on foot, to settle in a 
remote town in this State, and pursue his fortunes there as a shoe- 
maker, his tools being carefully sent on their way before him. In 
a short time he is busied in the post of County Surveyor for Litch- 
field County, being the most accomplished mathematician in that 
section of the State. Before he is twenty-five years old we find him 
supplying the astronomical matter. of an almanac published in New 
York. Next he is admitted to the bar, a self-qualified lawyer. Now 
he is found on the bench of the Superior Court. Next he becomes 
a member of the Continental Congress. There he is made a mem- 
ber of the Committee of Six to prepare the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. He continues a member of Congress for nearly twenty 
years, and is acknowledged to be one of the most useful men and 
wisest counsellors of the land. At length, having discharged every 
ofiice with a perfect ability, and honored, in every sphere, the name 
of a Christian, he dies regretted and loved by his State and Nation. 
Now this Roger Sherman, I maintain, was an educated man. Do 
you ask for other examples? I name, then, Washington, who had 
only a common domestic education, I name Franklin; I name Eit- 
tenhouse ; I name West ; I name Fulton ; I name Bowditch ; all 
Common School men, and some of them scarcely that, but yet all 
educated men, because they were made alive. Besides these, I know 
not any other seven names of our countrymen that can weigh against 
them. These are truly American names, and there are the best of 
reasons to believe that a generous system of public education would 
produce many such. Let them appear, and if they shall embody so 
much force, so much real freshness and sinew of character as to de- 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 115 

cide for tliemselves what sliall be called an education, or shall even 
be able to laugh at the dwarfed significance of college learning, I 
know not that we shall have any reasons for repining-." 

To this roll of honor we might add a long array of public men and 
of scholars whose first imj^ulse to self-education was received in the 
Public Schools: Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Stephen A. Douglas, 
Lewis Cass-, Abraham Lincoln, N. P. Banks, Elihu Burritt, Horace 
Mann, and many others. 

The second proposition is, that the property of the State should be 
taxed to educate the children of the State. The only just ground for 
taking any man's money for a public purpose is that the public good 
requires it. But, says some stiff-necked taxpayer, "I have edu- 
cated my children at my own expense;" or, "I have no children to 
educate; why should I be taxed to pay for educating the children of 
others ?" 

But children arrived at the age of maturity belong, not to the 
parents, but to the State, to society, to the country. Grovernment 
calls on them for the defense of the Constitution and the laws. 
Take the half a million of men now in the army; what are they 
doing but defending the property which has been taxed to educate 
them ? AVithout them, what would property be worth ? 

Again: Every able-bodied laborer adds to the wealth of the com- 
munity; for the real wealth of a State lies in its amount of produc- 
tive labor. Educated labor is more productive than ignorant labor. 
The testimony of all the mills, factories and workshops of the world 
is, that intelligent artisans are far more 25i'ofitable than ignorant 
ones. Kaise the standard of education among workingmen, and 
the productive value of property is increased. Ignorance and idle- 
ness are companions; vice and ignorance are companions. Experi- 
ence shows that the education of the masses affords better protec- 
tion to good morals, and more security to the rights of property, 
than all the criminal enactments that can be made or the prisons 
that can be built. Intelligence makes labor respectable and honor- 
able. Brute labor — the labor of the menial — is no more honorable 
to-day than when the unwilling millions toiled on the Pyramids of 
Egypt. The intelligent brain gives dignity to the toil-hardened 
hand. But we may base the necessity for general education on still 
broader grounds. Every man born into the world to enrich it by 
his labor, claims an education as an inalienable right, as much as 
liberty, food, air or light. Civilization is the result of the labors 
of all generations which have existed uj)on the earth. Our laws, 
our institutions, books, arts, sciences and inventions, are mostly 
the product of generations which have preceded us. What a child- 
like generation ours would be were the printing-press and steam 
power swept out of existence ! The generation now living strikes 
its roots deep into the mental strata of the globe, and draws its 
nutriment from all past generations. As the miners gather the 
mineral wealth of our State, upheaved by the convulsions of 
great geological epochs which thrust up the broken ribs of the 
earth through granite crusts, so do we enrich ourselves with the 
wealth of past time uplifted by the convulsions of nations. Haviug 
been educated by the labors of preceding generations, we cannot 



116 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

escape the resj)onsibility of educating those who are to succeed us. 
Every mau that is indebted to societ}' for an education, is in duty 
bound to discharge that debt by educating the child who is to suc- 
ceed him. 

EDUCATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 

Before considering in detail the condition of education in the dif- 
ferent States of the Union, let us glance at the national systems of 
instruction in the countries of the Old World. 

Germany may justly claim the credit of first thoroughly organiz- 
ing a sj'stem of public education, under the administration of the 
civil power. The characteristic features of the German schools 
are, the power of the Government to compel attendance; provision 
to make the schools, not free to all, but accessible to all; and excellent 
methods of instruction, resulting from Normal Schools; and the 
making of teaching a life profession. 

Music is a prominent part of education in Germany, and the 
strong national pride, love of country, and love of libert.y, of the 
Germans, is born in schools, where the patriotic songs of the nation 
become as familiar as the alphabet of their mother tongue. 

England, with all her time-honored Universities and endowed 
Public Schools, is far behind Germany in her elementary schools 
for the common people. Lord Brougham, in 1836, advocated a na- 
tional system of Public Schools, but the bill failed on account of the 
bitter controversies of the religious sects, and the children were allowed 
to grow up in ignorance rather than run the risk of an education 
without the catechisms. In advocating this bill. Lord Brougham 
said: 

" Let the people be taught, say I. The school is closed, but the 
penitentiary yawns day and night to ingulf its victims; the utterly 
execrable, the altogether abominable hulk lies moored in the face of 
day, which it darkens, riding on the face of the waters, which it 
stains with every unnatural excess of infernal pollution, triumphant 
over mortals." 

Macaulay said, in 1847, in the House of Commons: 

" Educate tJie jicople, was the first admonition addressed by Penn 
to the commonwealth he founded; educate the people, was the last 
legacy of Washington; educate the people, was the unceasing exhor- 
tation of Jefferson. Yes, of Jefferson himself, and I quote his 
authority with peculiar favor, for of all public men that the world 
ever saw, he was the one whose greatest delight it was to pare down 
the functions of Governments to the lowest possible- point, and to 
leave the freest possible scope for the exercise of individual rights." 

CHARLES DICKENS, 

Charles Dickens deserves to be classed among English educa- 
tional reformers, for his caricatures of English schoolmasters, in the 
character of Squeers, and of boarding schools conducted on the 
starvation system of that motherly matron, Mrs. Squeers, effected a 
salutary reform. The merciless wit of Dickens has never spared 
pompous pretensions to learning, nor pedantic methods of in- 



INSTITUTE ADDEESSES. 117 

struction. How capitally lie hits off what is termed "practical 
teaching:" 

" ' Now, what I want is Factg. Teach these boys and girls 
nothing but facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant noth- 
ing else, and root out everything else. Stick to facts.' The 
emphasis of the speaker was helped by the speaker's square 
wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base, and 
his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves over- 
hadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the speak- 
er's mouth, .which was wide, thin and hard set. The emphasis was 
helped by the sj)eaker's voice, which was inflexible, dry and dicta- 
torial. The speaker's obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, 
square shoulders, — nay, his very neckcloth trained to take him by 
the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as 
it was, — all helped the emphasis. ' In this life we want nothing but 
Facts, Sir, nothing but Facts.'" 

Gradgriud was a teacher with " a rule and a pair of scales, and 
the multiplication table always in his pocket. Sir, ready to weigh 
and measure any parcel of human nature, and tell you exactly what 
it comes to." 

Said the visitor, eloquently discoursing " to the little vessels ranged 
in rows ready to have gallons of facts poured into them until they 
were full to the brim:" 

"We hope to have before long a Board of Fact, composed 
of commissioners of fact, who will force the peoj^le to be a 
people of fact, and nothing but fact. You are not to have 
in any object of use or ornament what would be a contra- 
diction in fact. You don't walk upon flowers in fact ; you 
cannot be allowed to walk upon flowers in carpets. You never 
meet with quadrupeds going up and down walls ; you must 
not have quadruj^eds represented on walls. You must use, for all 
these purposes, combinations and modifications of mathematical 
figures, which are susceptible of proof and demonstration. This is 
fact. This is taste." 

In the school of facts, Mr. McChoakumchild does the practical 
work : 

"He, and some one hundred and forty other schoolmasters, had 
been lately turned in the same factory, at the same time, on the same 
principles, like so many piano forte legs. He had been put through 
an immense variety of paces, and had answered volumes of head- 
breaking questions. Orthography, etymology, syntax and prosody, 
biography, astronomy, geography and general cosmography, the 
sciences of compound proportion, algebra, land surveying and 
levelling, vocal music and drawing from models, were all at the ends 
of his ten chilled fingers. 

" He had taken the bloom off the higher branches of mathematics 
and physical sciences, French, German, Latin and Greek. He knew 
all about all the watersheds of all the world, and all the histories 
of all the peoples, and all the names of all the rivers and mountains, 
and the productions, manners and customs of all the countries, and 
all their boundaries and bearings on the two and thirty points of the 
compass. 



118 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

" If he had onlj' learnt a little less, how infinitely better he might 
have taught much more ! 

"There were five j'oimg Gradgrinds, and they were models, every 
one. No little Gradgrind had ever seen a face in the moon; it was 
up in the moon before it could speak distinctly. No little Grad- 
g-riud had ever learnt the silly jingle, ' Twinkle, twinkle, little f-tar; 
how I wonder what you are !' It had never known wonder on the 
subject, having at five years dissected the Great Bear like a Pro- 
fessor Owen, and driven Charles' Wain like a locomotive engine 
driver. No little Gradgrind had ever associated a cow in a field 
with that famous cow with the crumpled horn who tossed the dog 
who worried the cat who killed the rat who ate the malt, or with 
that yet more famous cow who swallowed Tom Thumb. It had 
never heard of these celebrities, and had only been introduced to 
a cow as a graminivorous, ruminating quadrujDed with several 
stomachs. 

" 'Bring to me,' says Mr. McChoakumchild, 'yonder baby, just 
able to walk, and I will engage that he shall never v/onder.' 

"And Gradgrind, as he surveyed the children, seemed a kind of 
cannon, loaded to the muzzle with facts, and prepared to blow them 
clean out of the regions of childhood at one discharge." 

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF OUR SCHOOLS. 

One distinctive feature of our schools is the general education of 
the sexes together. I believe that the true deference paid to woman, 
and the chivalric politeness with which she is treated, and the high 
standard of morality generally prevailing in the United States, are 
the results, in no small degree, of educating boys and girls together 
in the same schools. 

Another distinctive feature of our schools is their freedom from 
sectarian instruction. In inost European schools direct religious 
lessons are given by the clergy of both the Catholic and the Prot- 
estant churches ; in other words, the schools are made the medium 
of denominational and sectarian teaching of creeds and catechisms. 

Happily for their prosperity, and for the best interests of vital re- 
ligion, our schools are removed from all denominational influences, 
and the reading of the Bible, without note or comment, afibrds lit- 
tle occasion for sectarian feeling. All are left free to form their own 
belief, drawn from the primal source of Christianity. 

STATE SCHOOL TAX. 

A State tax of half a mill on the dollar has been levied this year 
for carrying on the work of building up the State Ca^jitol ; is it not 
quite as necessary that the work of building schoolhouses should 
not be delayed? Of what use will a magnificent State Capitol be, 
unless educated legislators are sent there to fill it ? The State is to 
be placed on a military footing. It is equallj^ necessary that it should 
be placed on an educational footing, for educated and intelligent 
men are a stronger defense than Monitors, Columbiads, or field bat- 
teries. During the darkest hour of our national adversity the work 
upon the dome of the Capitol, at Washington, was carried on with- 



INSTITUTE ADDEESSES. 119 

out cessation, even tinder the roar of the enemy's cannon — a fitting 
type of the faith of the people in the permanence of our Govern- 
ment and the stability of our institutions. Our public schools are 
not the dome of the Kepublic, but the solid and everlasting founda- 
tions on which is based the permanence and integrity of the nation. 

We, of this generation, fall back upon the sword and the bayonet 
to sustain the laws ; but if we expect our children to be capaljle of 
self-government, if we have not utterly lost our faith in representa- 
tive institutions, let us not stultify ourselves by failing to educate 
our children. 

We sprang at once into a high degree of civilization ; our mines 
yield immediate and rich returns for labor, and we are unworthy 
the fairest inheritance the sun shines upon if we do not provide a 
system of free schools which shall furnish the means of education 
to every child as liberally as nature has bestowed her mineral wealth 
upon our land. Shall California, just entering on a renewed career 
of prosperity from the recent discoveries of fabuloiis mineral wealth, 
contribute less for schools than the States where ice and granite 
take the place of silver and gold? Is the table of ten mills one 
cent — ten cents one dime — ten dimes one dollar — ten dollars one 
eagle — the only ten commandments our children shall be taught? 
Is the national ensign of the Republic, like the calf of molten gold 
the children of Israel worshiped in the wilderness, to be made a 
great golden buzzard? Is metal to be valued more than mind, and 
"feet" more than the little brain engines that fill the schoolhouses? 

Shall we pay thousands of dollars annually for blooded stock, and 
let the children run wild, like Spanish cattle? Shall we sink costly 
artesian wells through all our valleys, and keep the living well- 
springs of knowledge sealed to the thirsty children ? Shall we send 
to Europe for choice foreign wines, and leave the children to grow 
up like the wild mustard which covers our fertile lands with its rank 
growth ? Shall millions be expended in constructing a Pacific Rail- 
road, and the State fail to lay the solid foundations of character and 
intelligence on which rest the permanent prosperity of the genera- 
tion which will reap the benefits of that great highway of the world ? 
Shall we make every sacrifice of men and money to maintain the 
Union for a generation unfitted, through want of education, to ap- 
preciate either our sacrifices, or the value of the inheritance we 
leave them ? 

The effect of our abundant wealth, unless its possessors shall be 
educated and trained to use it in intellectual pleasures and refined 
enjoyments, will be to sweep us into the rankest and grossest forms 
of materialism. 

The real wealth of the State- must ever be her educated men and 
intelligent laborers. Educated mind has made the world rich by 
its creative power. The intelligent minds which invented the steam- 
ship, the cotton-gin, and the spinning-jenny, created for the world 
a wealth greater than the products of the gold mines of Australia 
and California together. How many millions of dollars is Erics- 
son's invention of the Monitor worth to the nation? How much 
the invention of the electric telegraph ? How much the hundreds 
of labor-saving machines in every department of industry ? Igno- 



120 INSTITUTE ADDKESSES. 

ranee invents none of these. What influence, tell me, is so mighty 
in developing the intellect of society as the common school ? One 
single great mind, inspired in the public school with a love for 
learning — without which it might have slumbered forever — may 
prove of more value to the State than the entire cost of schools for 
half a century. 

What influence is so mighty in developing this creative power of 
society, as the intelligence imparted in the public schools ? Go to 
the Patent Ofiice and find out how many inventions come from the 
land of common schools, and how many from the States that have 
failed to establish them. 

Not many years ago, a member of the British Parliament urged, 
as a reason against a system of national instruction, "that if they 
dejn'ived the farmers of the labor of the children, agriculture could 
not be carried on, because there was no machinery to get the weeds 
out of the land." 

The policy of New England always has been to send the children 
to school, and let Yankee ingenuity invent machines " to get the 
weeds out of the land." 

She has "saved" enough by the invention of "machines," con- 
trived by laboring men educated in her schools, to pay for the 
whole cost of her schools twice told. 

An agricultural report says: 

"The saving to the country from the improvements in plows 
alone, within the last twenty-five years, has been estimated at no 
less than ten millions of dollars a jear in the work of teams, and 
one million in the price of plows, while the aggregate of the crops 
is suj^posed to have been increased by many millions of bushels." 

The machinery brought into use, since 181G, is estimated to be 
equal to the labor of five hundred millions of men. 

Ignorance never invented a machine to save the labor of a single 
man. 

The life of the nation lies not in a few great men, not in a few 
brilliant minds, but is made up of the men who drive the plow, 
who build the ships, who run the mills, and fill the machine shojDS, 
who build the locomotives and steam-engines, who construct the 
railroads, who delve in the mines, who cast the cannon, who man 
the ironclads and gunboats, who shoulder the musket, and who do 
the fighting ; these constitute the life and strength of the nation, 
and it is with all these men that the public schools have done and 
are now doing their beneficent work. The nation will not be saved 
by any one "great man; " the bone and muscle of intelligent labor- 
ing men must work out its salvation. Blundering statesmen may 
mar the fortunes of the war; general after general may show ujd his 
own incompetence ; the concentrated and consolidated intelligence 
of the working men and fighting men will, in the end, prove victo- 
rious. When the bayonet has done its work, the ballot-box must 
protect the freedom won on the battle-field. When every ballot 
represents an idea, and falls electrified with intelligence to "exe- 
cute a freeman's will," the States will revolve harmoniously around 
the central sun of a consolidated Union ; no star will shoot off in 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 121 

eccentric orbit into the chaos of disunion, or the cometary darkness 
and desolation of secession. 

Intelligent free laborers are working out the great problem of 
civilizing this continent; intelligent fightiug men are consolidating 
its Government; and, underlying all, the public schools are silently 
forming a sound national character. Free as air, vital as electricity 
and vivifying as the sunlight, they act on the organic forces of the 
nation, as these three physical agents build up the life of the globe 
out of inorganic matter. • 

The insurrection will be put down by the sword and the bayonet; 
but even then the only strength of the Union will be in a public 
opinion based on an intelligent comprehension of national affairs by 
the people of the whole nation. 

The number of legal voters in the United States who cannot read 
and write is greater than the ordinary majority by which a President 
is elected. 

It is seldom the Governor of any State is elected by a majority 
larger than the number of " illiterate voters of the State." What 
avails the Constitution at the mercy of men who cannot read it ? 
Unless the laws of the several States are administered by rulers 
chosen by electors whose ballots fall vitalized by intelligence, no 
standing armies, no Constitutions, can hold them in harmonious 
spheres around the central sun of a Representative Government. 
They will shoot off in eccentric orbits into the unfathomable dark- 
ness of dissolution and chaos, never to return. 

It is a Prussian maxim. "Whatever you would have appear in the 
life of the nation you must put into the schools." 

If the schools inculcate with intellectual training love of country, 
cordial submission to lawful authority, moral rectitude, some knowl- 
edge of the theory and organic structure of our Government, and a 
true spii'it of patriotism, then shall our citizens be truly men, and our 
electors princes indeed. 

When I consider the power of the public schools, how they have 
disseminated intelligence in every village, and hamlet, and log- 
house in the nation, how they are molding the plastic elements of 
the next generation into the symmetry of modern civilization, I can- 
not think that our country is to be included in the long list 

" Of uatious scattered like the chaff 
Blown from the threshiug-floor of God." 

I hold nothing in common with those fainthearted patriots who 
are beginning to despair of the future of our country. The latent 
powers of the nation are just coming into healthful and energetic 
action, and in spite of treason, are moving the Republic onward and 
upward to a higher standpoint of liberty. 

The Anglo-Saxon race, even in its ruder jeavs, always possessed 
an inherent power of self-government. Tell me not that now, when 
this stubborn vitality and surplus energy, exj^ended so long in over- 
running the world, are guided by intelligence and refined by Chris- 
tianity, this same race is to be stricken with the palsy, because of a 
two years' war. 

Long before the completion of the Pacific Railroad, these new re- 
8 



122 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

cruits, drilled in the public schools, will push their way across the 
continent, as the Saxons set out from their northern hives, a vast 
army of occupation, cultivating the "National Homestead," and for- 
tifying the whole line of communication by a cordon of schoolhouses 
that shall hold it forever as the heritage of free labor, free men and 
a free nation. 

" So shall the Northern pioneer go joyful on his way, 
To wed Penobscot's waters to San Francisco's Bay ! 
To make the nigged places smooth, to sow the vales with grain, 
And bear, with Liberty and Law, the Bible in his train; 
The mighty West shall bless the East, and sea shall answer sea, 
t And mountain unto mountain call, Pkaise God, foe we aee Free !" 



3. METHODS OF TEACHING.* 

The common schools are established by law, for the purpose of 
affording to all the children in the State the means of obtaining a 
good education, at the public expense. Their design is to have 
knowledge as common among the jDeojole, as are water, air, and the 
sunlight. They are planted deep in the affections of the people. 
Their importance cannot be overstated. Any attempt to improve 
them, or to render them more useful, deserves the encouragement 
of every good citizen. I understand that the object of this Insti- 
tute, composed of teachers from various parts of the State, is to 
interchange views in relation to the great cause of education, in 
order to assist one another in the practice of their profession. 

So much has been written upon the subject of education, that it 
would seem to have been exhausted long ago. Yet it is, in fact, as 
inexhaustible as human nature. It comprehends and applies to all 
men, from the cradle to the grave, under all circumstances, and 
with all their varieties and peculiarities of character. It endeavors 
to ascertain the true and philosophical system of human culture, to 
point out the best methods of teaching, of maintaining good order, 
of preserving the health, and of developing all the faculties in the 
natural order, so as to produce the best results for the individual 
and the communit}'. 

The object of the present meeting is more specifically to improve, 
in every possible manner, the condition of the common schools of 
this State. We wish to render these fountains, at which the great 
mass of the people drink, as pure and invigorating as possible. 

My purpose is then to take some of the ordinary branches taught 
in the common schools, and to state what I think the best methods 
of giving instruction in them. Before doing so, however, let me 
present a few general considerations. 

Although the practice of teaching must have begun in Para- 
dise (indeed, according to the pious legends of the Kabbins, Adam 
was not only the first man, but also the first schoolmaster, aided by 
Enoch, I suppose, as his first assistant), yet it is nearly certain that 
no great imjjrovements were generally effected in the art of teach- 
ing, and that there never was known such a thing as the philosophy 
of teaching, until the institution of common schools, and, in point 

- Eead before the Htate Teachers' Institute, 1861, by George W. Minns. 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 123 

of fact, Bot even till long after they were known. We owe our 
fathers a debt of gratitude for the establishment of the first free 
schools, supported at the public expense, for the education of the 
whole people. Yet they were very imperfect in many particulars, 
and the change for the better was very slow and not made without 
much opposition. There was for a long time great imperfection in 
the construction of schoolhouses. The Hon. Horace Mann, while 
he was Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, described 
schoolhouses in central districts of rich and populous towns, where 
each seat was a stump, without side-arms or back-board ; some of 
them so high that the feet of the children in vain sought after the 
floor, and on the hard top of which they were obliged to balance 
themselves as well as they could, for some six hours in a day. 

Mr. Mann says: " I have reason to remember one of another class 
of schoolhouses, of the wicker-work order of architecture — summer- 
houses for winter residences — where there was never a severely cold 
day without the ink's freezing in the pens of the scholars while they 
were writing, and the teacher was obliged to compromise between 
the sufferings of those who were exposed to the cold of the win- 
dows, and those exjjosed to the heat of the fire, by not raising the 
thermometer near the latter above ninety degrees, until that near 
the window fell below thirty. It was an excellent place for the 
teacher to illustrate one of the facts in geography, for five steps 
would have carried him through the five zones. Just before my 
present circuit," he writes, "I passed a schoolhouse, the roof of 
which, on one side, was trough-like, and down towards the eaves 
there was a large hole, so that the whole operated like a tunnel, to 
catch the rain, and pour it into the school-room. At first, I did 
not know but it might be some apparatus to illustrate the deluge. 
I called, and inquired of the mistress if she and her little ones were 
not sometimes drowned out. She said she should be, only that the 
floor leaked as badly as the roof, and drained off the water." 

I myself have seen a schoolhouse in which an old hat was shown 
to be a pronoun, by being used instead of the noun, glass. 

It is of great importance to provide healthful and comfortable 
schoolhouses for the young. Let them be placed in the most 
pleasant locations ; let the seats be convenient for children of all 
ages, and let an abundance be furnished of that prime necessary of 
life, fresh air. 

More improvements have been made in the last twenty-five years, 
in relation to the structure and management of schoolhouses, and 
in reference to the modes of teaching the various branches pursued 
therein, than had been accomplished during the preceding two cen- 
turies. I well remember the first grammar-school which I attended. 
It was a very long room, with a smoke-pipe extending the whole 
length of it, into which, so the master said, all bad boys would go. 
I was puzzled for some time to find where it led, as it passed through 
a partition separating us from the next room. The stove was large 
and grim-looking, with the head of some nondescript monster upon 
the door, with the snarling mouth wide oj)en ; and when the full 
power of the draught was on, it roared loud enough to devour sev- 
eral bad boys at once. I kept at a safe distance from it. The walls 



124 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 



of this aijartment were as bare as i^rison walls. There was not a 
map, nor an engraving, nor a picture upon them, and no globe be- 
longed to the school. This was certainly wrong. The walls of our 
school-rooms should be covered and adorned Avith maps and pict- 
ures suited to the progress of the scholars. There are published in 
the pictorial papers, and in other ways, farm scenes, pictures of do- 
mestic animals, birds, and beasts, of flowers, of different kinds of 
trees, and views of some of the largest cities of the globe, all of 
which would be useful in this respect. Nov, by any means, would 
I have omitted some scenes addressed to that sense of the beautiful 
which exists in children as strongly as it does in us. All this might 
be done at a trifling expense, and what a contrast would be presented 
between such a school-room and the cold, lifeless, and dingy walls 
within which too many children are confined. If I had a school in 
the country, particularly if it was one for small children, I would, 
in the proper season, have many of the exercises conducted in the 
open air, in a grove, or any shady place near by. Every lesson 
relating to nature should be studied, or read, in the face of nature, 
-with flowers scattered all around, and under the living trees, instead 
of hanging over the "desk's dead wood." Why should a class read 
Bryant's glorious poem, " The groves were God's first temples," in 
a wooden box lined with Lowell sheeting, when at a short distance 
may be nature's temple itself, with its lofty pillars, its green arches,, 
its majestic roof, and its sweet songsters. 

Then, still carrying out this principle of object-teaching, I would 
Avail myself of it wherever I could. For instance, by the use of the 
numeral frame, or, if that cannot be had, with buttons, or beans, all 
the fundamental rules and jDrinciples of arithmetic can be taught 
and made palpable to the eye. I would have the length of a 3'ard, 
foot, and inch, jDermanently marked upon the ujDper part of the 
blackboard. 1 would have every grammar school provided with 
the following articles, for use in the various departments, namely : 
Peck, gallon, quart, pint, and gill, measures; grains, pennyweights, 
ounces, and pounds, of the different measures; blocks to represent 
square and solid measures, and, in addition, a pair of scales. The 
clock can be used to illustrate the divisions of time. I would have 
ever}'' scholar studying arithmetic show himself, by experiment, 
whether the tables he commits to memory are correct. In this 
manner, the learning of the tables, which is so often considered a 
drudgery, would become a pleasant pastime. After this, do you 
think the pupil would forget them ? 

So in commencing grammar. Provide a number of different col- 
ored wafers, bits of cloth, silk, or cotton. Show them to the schol- 
ars, asking them to state the color of each. Let the pupils tell and 
write upon their slates the object, the color, and the number shown. 
Will not they very soon learn which is the noun, and which words 
merely describe the noun — that is, are adjectives? 

A similar course may be pursued with the verb, and it may be 
modified so as to bring the child to understand the office of pro- 
nouns, and to apply some of the tenses of the verbs. 

Example — I lift a book (doing it). He lifts a book. The book 
can be lifted. You may rise. They will sit. She is touching the 
table, etc. 



INSTITUTE ADDEESSES. 125 

This exercise may be varied indefinitely. Children should go 
through these exercises together, pronouncing the sentences, and 
illustrating them by doing the thing mentioned. 

In this connection, I will remark that, in my opinion, children 
pursue the study of grammar at altogether too early an age. Be- 
cause they can easily be taught what a noun, an adjective, or a verb 
is, it by no means follows that their minds are in a tit state to under- 
stand the principles of grammar, or analysis. There are other stud- 
ies more suitable for their tender years. A year or two later, they 
can enter more readily into the spirit and foundation of the rules of 
grammar, and their minds will be better prepared to grapple with 
the difficulties of the study. Time is lost by putting children into 
studies for which their minds are not ripe. "Grammar is not the 
stepping-stone, but the finishing instrument." As grammar was 
made after language, so oiaght it to be taught after language. 

When scholars come to study the natural sciences, these are 
made, as much as possible, matters of experiment and observation. 
No one supposes a pupil will make any proficiency in the study of 
chemistry, or of any branch of natural philosophy, without witness- 
ing experiments, or making them for themselves. Is there not good 
reason, then, for pursuing the same course, as far as possible, with 
less advanced children? It is true, as has been remarked, that pri- 
mary and intermediate schools need apparatus as much as a high 
school, but, of course, of a different character. 

The several faculties of the human mind are not simultaneously 
developed, and in educating an individual we ought to follow the 
order of nature, and adapt" the instruction to the age and mental 
stature of the pupil. If we reverse this order, and attempt to culti- 
vate faculties which are not suf&ciently matured, while we neglect 
to cultivate those which are, we do the child an irreparable injury. 
Memory, imitation, imagination, powers of observation, and the fac- 
ulty of forming mental habits, exist in early life, while the judgment 
and the reasoning powers are of slower growth. It is well known 
that the memory may be stored at an early age with valuable rules 
and precepts which in future life may become the materials of reflec- 
tion, and the guiding principles of action ; that it may be furnished 
with heroic sentiments and poetic illustrations, with " thoughts which 
breathe and words that burn," and which, long after, will spring up 
spontaneously from the depths of the mind, at the proper moment, 
to embellish and to enforce the truths of the future man. 

This period of life, when acquisitions of this kind are most readily 
made, is not that in which the judgment and reasoning powers can 
be most properly cultivated. They require a more advanced age, 
when the mind has become more matured by natural growth, and 
better furnished with the material of thought. 

An important part of elementary mental instruction is that of im- 
parting expertness in the performance of certain processes, such as 
spelling, reading, penmanship, drawing, composition, expertness in 
the first rules of arithmetic. I shall by and by consider some of 
these branches under another aspect. At present I refer only to 
that promptness and dexterity in going through certain processes, 
which can be imparted only by laborious drilling on the part of the 



126 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

teacher, and acquired onlj' b}' attention and frequent practice on 
the part of the pupil. As merely one- illustration of what I mean, 
I will mention skill in adding long columns of figures with rapidity 
and correctness. It is only in early life, while the mind is in a j^li- 
able condition, that these mental facilities can most readily and most 
perfectly be acquired. The practice in each case must be so long 
continued, and the process so often repeated, that it becomes a 
mental habit, and is at length performed with accuracy and rapid- 
ity, almost without thought. I think this drilling is the most irk- 
some part of a Teacher's duty; it is apt to be distasteful to the pupil, 
but it must be faithfully and resolutely performed. It is an import- 
ant principle which should be kept in view by the Teacher, that 
although the practice of an art is at first diflficult, and requires at 
each step an effort of mind, yet, every repetition renders it easier, 
and at length we come to exercise it not only without eflbrt, but as 
a pleasurable gratification of a habitual act. Perseverance, there- 
fore, in this cause, will ultimately receive a grateful reward. 

We should carefully avoid having too many studies in our schools. 
Non viuUa, sed muUum is a maxim of sound sense. Do a few things 
well, not many things poorly. It should never be forgotten that 
correct spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, granimar, 
and facility in expressing one's self in good plain English, are indis- 
pensable. They are the foundation of all future acquisitions; in 
fact, without them, there can be no superstructure. They are worth 
any quantity of heads full of mere smatterings of ologies and osophies. 

"I want to conjecture a map to study antimony, and to learn 
bigotry," said a girl to her master. "My dear little girl," was the 
reply, " you may project a map, after having studied geography some 
time" longer; astronomy you may attend to when you can understand 
it; and I would advise you never to learn bigotry in all your life. 
Perhaps you mean botany." 

It is a great evil, I have said, to introduce many studies into a 
school. It works evil in another way, and that is, children are put 
into studies for which their minds are not mature enough. It is an 
important fact that the mind, at a certain time, may be totally un- 
able to comprehend a subject, because it is not sufficiently developed 
to understand it. The evident course to be followed is, to wait, 
wait until the mind has grown, and then what was formerly so diffi- 
cult becomes perhaps quite easy. 

An incident is related in the Autobiography of Dr. Benjamin 
Franklin, which illustrates this point. 

Dr. Franklin states that he was sent by his father to a school for 
writing and arithmetic, " kept by a then famous man, a Mr. George 
Brownwell. Under him," says' the Doctor, " I learned to write a 
good hand pretty soon; but I failed entirely in arithmetic." 

It is almost incredible that a . mind like Franklin's should be in- 
capable, even at the age of nine years, of understanding the rudi- 
ments of arithmetic, which he tells us, he mastered a few years after 
by himself, Avith ease. His mind, perhaps, was not sufficiently 
groAvn for him to take hold of the subject. Another explanation of 
this fact is to be found also in the character of the text-books used 
in Franklin's day, and in the method, or, rather, want of any method, 



INSTITUTE ADDEESSES. 127 

of instruction. Every one, at all interested in the cause of Educa- 
tion, knows the vast improvement that has been made within a 
brief period, both in the books used in schools and in the methods 
of teaching from them. This improvement has extended to every 
branch of a school education. It is difficult for us to form an idea 
how different was the state of things in Franklin's time. I imagine 
I see the boy — endowed by his Creator with faculties which were to 
astonish the world by their strength, acuteness, and grasj) — that 
boy, who afterw^ards made his name immortal by his discoveries in 
science, and who did more than any man, except "Washington, to 
carry his countrymen successfully through the war of the Eevolu- 
tion — I imagine I see him in a small and, probably, ill-ventilated 
school-roofn in School Street, in the town of Boston, resting his 
distracted head upon his hand, and endeavoring in vain to catch a 
glimpse of the meaning of the mysterious rules in Cocker's Arith- 
metic. The various studies that now make school life pleasant Avere 
entirely out of his reach. At ten years of age he was taken from 
school to help his father in the business of tallow-chandler and 
soap-boiler, having learned from that "famous man," Master 
Brownwell, nothing except a good hand — a statement which every 
one will admit to be true who looks at his name, signed in clear, 
round characters, to the Declaration of IndejDendence. One cannot 
help thinking with what delight Franklin would, even at that early 
age, have pored over the most elementary treatise on Natural Phi- 
losophy; but it was to be his fate, by his brilliant discoveries, to 
make some of the most important additions to such a work, instead 
of merely reading accounts of the achievements of others. 

It should be carefully kept in mind that the object is not to pour 
information into the mind, but to train and discipline it. Hence, 
we see the absurdity of learning a lesson merely by rote, and of 
asking, in hearing a recitation, simply the questions which may be 
in the book. Montaigne says: "To know b}' heart, is not to 
Jinow." Self-development should be encouraged to the fullest ex- 
tent. The pupil should be told as little as possible, and induced to 
discover as much as possible. Encourage him to conquer difficul- 
ties himself. Every victory so achieved adds to the strength of his 
mind, and what he acquires in this way he makes permanently his 
own. The rule that the teacher should follow, is not to do anything 
for the scholar which the scholar can do for himself; to remove 
from the road only those obstacles which are insurmountable, and 
to put the pupil on the right track when he has got on the wrong 
one. The true object in teaching is, to enable the scholar to do 
■without a teacher, as in assisting a child to walk; it is that he may 
walk alone. It is true that certain information must be imparted 
by the teacher, and the best informed man, other things being 
equal, will be the best teacher. But in imparting information, the 
same caution should be used as in feeding a child. Give him intel- 
lectual food only when he craves it, then only can he digest it. 
Don't load his stomach when he is not hungry. There is intellec- 
tual dyspepsia in schools. 

It is implied in what I have said, that the real object of education 
is to teach how to think. If this is not done, the memory may be 



128 INSTIIUTE ADDKESSES. 

crammed with knowledge, so called (even this is like the rude and 
undigested mass with which Virgil's harpies gorged themselves); 
but what wisdom is there, what development of mind ? Emerson 
says: " When a great thinker is let loose upon the world, look 
out." How true it is that very few people do think. Many follow 
in the beaten track, without asking whether there is not a better 
road. How many are carried away by mere Avords, names, devices,, 
without once inquiring — What does all this really mean ? Let us 
not be surprised, then, that the power of thinking is not more 
frequently found among the young. Few grown persons possess 
it. But it is a source of great gratification to the teacher when he 
finds in his class any who do think, who turn the matj:er over in 
their minds, who inquire why this is, or is not, so; in short, who^ 
bring mind to bear ujoon the subject of their lessons. He wishes- 
that that leaven would leaven the whole lump of juvenility before 
him. Too many learn their lessons by going over them as a mere 
matter of memory, not as an e.xercise of the mind. This will be the 
ease as long as teachers insist upon, and are satisfied with, merely 
the answers in the book, hearing the lesson almost as a mechanical 
exercise. The remedy for the evil is to cross-examine the scholars 
closely, and in a variety of ways, in order to ascertain whether they 
have clear and definite ideas on the subject which they have been 
studying. In this manner you probe their knowledge. Take all 
the pains in the world to see that they understand what they recite, 
perhai^s, very glibly. 

As the foundation of all memory, of all thinking, of progress in 
learning, of success in any pursuit, attention is indispensable. It is 
the possession, or the want of this faculty, that makes the great 
difference among men. It is the power of directing and holding 
the mind closely and fixedly upon an}^ subject until it is contem- 
plated in all its asi^ects and relations, and thereby fully understood. 
You remember Newton said if there was a difi'erence between him- 
self and other men, it resulted from his attention to the subject of 
his thoughts. This ability to fasten and hold the attention cannot 
be estimated too highly. It must not be disregarded even in the 
youngest pupil. Whether one or many are to be instructed, un- 
divided attention must be given. Care and judgment ai"e, of course, 
highly necessary in presenting just such thoughts and lessons as 
are adapted to their capacity. One thing at a time should claim 
attention until it is full}^ mastered- Let that one thing be within 
the reach of the child's mind, and then impressed upon it until the 
idea is fully grasped. 

A pleasant method of giving a child a lesson in attention may be 
found in Ogden's " Science of Education," He says: " A little ex- 
pedient to which I have resorted, on some occasions, may be sug- 
gestive of means that may be adopted for correcting these evils, 
and of fixing the attention. Holding up my watch to the school, I 
have said: ' How many of these little boys and girls can look at it 
for one minute at a time?' The idea, perhaps, is a novel one, and 
their little voices and hands will respond, anxious for the experi- 
ment. Some will say, boastingl}^, ' I can look at it an hour!' ' Two 
hours !' responds another little captain, who is anxious to make a 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 129 

display of his prowess. At this juncture, I ask, how many would 
be willing to make the experiment of one minute continuous look- 
ing ? There is a shower of hands and a shout of voices raised to 
the highest i^itch. ' Well, let us try; all ready; now!' And their 
forms straighten up, and all eyes are bent with intense earnestness 
upon the watch. It grows very quiet, and every one listens and 
looks. Presently it occurs to half a dozen, or more, of them, that 
they are doing it about right. ' I wonder if John, or Charles, or 
Mary, or Ellen , is looking too ? Wonder if they all are doing as well 
as lam?' And their thoughts leave the watch and the promise, and 
wander after Charles or Ellen, and the temptation to look away be- 
comes so great that in about half a minute, or less, you will see an 
occasional pair of eyes glance hurriedly to some convenient quarter 
of the room, and back quick to the watch again; others, still less 
cautious, will turn the head, and look carelessly away; others, 
again, will drop off entirely, and cease to look; while some more 
resolute and determined and careful than the rest, will not remove 
their eyes for a moment, and, at the expiration of the time, will an- 
nounce their triumph with evident satisfaction. At the close, some 
will insist upon a new trial; it may be granted, and then others 
will succeed: and here it might be well to vary the experiment. 
The question might be asked: ' If you are capable of holding your 
eyes fixed upon that watch, can you, with equal success, confine 
them to a picture or mark, upon the board ?' 

" ' Now, if you can look at a watch, a i:)icture, or a mere chalk 
mark upon the board, for a given time, can you look at your books 
as long without change?' The intention here, perhaps, will be dis- 
covered by some, and they will begin to see the force of it. Let 
the experiment be made with the book, without attempting to study 
during the first few trials. If they succeed well, suggest that if 
they can look upon one page of the book, they might study that 
long without looldng away; and if they can thus confine the atten- 
tion for one, two, or three minutes, they can also, by practicing, 
continue to five and six; but it will be found that young scholars 
are not able to endure more than three or four minutes, even after 
months of practice." 

Another method is to read sentences selected for the beauty of 
the thought, or for the admirable manner in which they express 
some noble sentiment, or convey some moral truth. They are to 
be suited to the mind of the scholar, and are to be read to the 
whole class, beginning, of course, with short sentences, and after- 
wards proceeding to longer and more complicated. Every one in 
the class must be told to give close attention. The sentence is 
then read only once, slowly and distinctl3^ All those who can re- 
member it are requested to raise their hands, and some one is called 
on to repeat it. It is wonderful to what an extent the attention and 
the memory can be cultivated by such a course as this. Do you 
suppose that children, who have had the advantage of this practice, 
will, when they hear a lecture or sermon in after-life, complain that 
their memories are so wretched that they cannot recollect a word? 

Warren Colburn's "Intellectual Arithmetic" (and all mental 
arithmetics are based upon his plan), besides addressing the reason- 



130 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

ing faculty, and leading" pupils to understand the principles of 
arithmetic, is remarkably instrumental in increasing the power of 
thought, and in enabling the mind to hold and to follow a line of 
consecutive reasoning. 

The object of the Common School is to give the pupil a good 
knowledge of the fundamental branches of an English education. 
I shall now remark upon the methods of teaching some of these 
branches somewhat more in detail. 

Edward Everett says, " I hold that to read the English language 
well — that is, with intelligence, feeling, spirit, and effect; to write, 
with dispatch, a neat, handsome, legible hand (for it is, after all, a 
great object in writing to have others able to read what we write), 
and to be master of the four rules of arithmetic, so as to dispose, 
at once, with accuracy, every question of figures which comes up in 
practical life — I say, I call this a good education. And, if you add 
the ability to write j)ure, grammatical English, I regard it as an ex- 
cellent education. These are the tools. You can do much with 
them, but 3'ou are helpless without them." 

First, let me speak of reading. To read understandingly, natur- 
ally, expressively, and feelingly, is a delightful accomplishment; 
and yet how few possess it ? Vocal exercises are excellent for cul- 
tivating and developing the powers of the voice; the proper pro- 
nunciation and distinct enunciation of words, the different intona- 
tions of the voice should be carefully regarded; but the significance 
of the words, the meaning of the author, is indispensable. A lesson 
in reading sliould he studied as thoroughly as any other lesson set in the 
school. The teacher should inquire the meaning of every word and 
every allusion with which he may suppose the pupils to be unac- 
quainted. As their minds become more mature, he should call 
their attention to tlie beauties or defects of any comparison em- 
ployed. He should endeavor to impress them with a proper con- 
ception of the beauty, wisdom, or truth of what they read. If a 
lesson of only a few lines can be learnt in this manner, set that les- 
son, and no more. Do not be discouraged if the progress be slow 
at first, it will be rapid by and by. At any rate, it is progress, 
whereas the other course is no progress at»all. -For surely the ut- 
tering of pages of words, day after day, and month after month, 
without comprehending their meaning, is not at all elevated above 
the occupation of the parrot. Nor is it sufficient that the pupil 
understands the meaning of most of the words; he must know them 
all. If he is ignorant of the meaning of one word, he may lose all 
the soul of whatever he reads. Let the teacher, in hearing a class 
read, have perpetually in mind the question addressed by Philip, 
" Understandest thou what thou readest ?" 

There can be no good reading if the lesson is not understood. 
If, upon examining a school, I found the pupils well acquainted 
with the meaning of what they read, I should feel the best assur- 
ance that they had pursued their other studies understandingly. 

I wish to caution all against a theatrical tone. Most Professors 
of Elocution commit this error, and many who attend their instruc- 
tions imitate them in this respect. Hence, there is so little good 
jeading among us. On the one hand, some who have never re- 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 131 

ceived any instruction from a competent teaclier, read in a careless, 
slovenly, and wretched manner, mumbling their words in the same 
monotone, whatever the subject may be; while, on the other hand, 
many, taking their cue from some Professor of Elocution, or some 
distinguished public reader, assume an unnatural tone, and, with an 
air and manner, all affectation and conceit, begin what -they consider 
remarkably stunning reading. Heaven preserve me from it. "I 
had rather be a kitten, and cry mew," than be obliged to listen to 
it. I pray you avoid it. Of one of these theatrical readers it was 
said that, at dinner, she stabbed the potatoes instead of taking 
them, and that she asked for a knife in the same tone in which she 
would say, " Give me the dagger." 

I proceed next to the subject of Geography. This study is often 
commenced with a series of definitions, which are got by heart, re- 
peated, laid aside, and forgotten; forgotten, for one reason, be- 
cause not explained or understood, the language being made to 
precede the ideas; and for another, because the words which the 
definitions are to exj^lain are new to the pupils. A better way of 
commencing geography, with all children, is to call their attention 
to the spot on which they live; to point out surrounding objects, 
and mark their relative situations on the floor or black board; and 
thus, to show how a town, its streets or roads, and its prominent 
features, natural or artificial, may be represented. As their ideas 
expand, the scale may be reduced, and distant towns, counties, 
rivers, and mountains, with which the children are acquainted, or 
of which they may have heard, may be introduced, correct ideas of 
space and number being gradually acquired. Pupils should be 
taught, by reference to objects around, them, what is the length of 
a mile; and b}^ questions put to them in relation to places to which 
they have traveled, they should be enabled to form a correct idea of 
what the distance fifty, one hundred, or one thousand miles ac- 
tually is. Point out in which direction North, South, East and 
T/est are, and state why a certain direction is fixed upon for the 
North. Call attention to the pictorial representations of lakes, 
rivers, &c. (like those introduced into the San Francisco schools); 
and having alraad}' become acqv;ainted with the thing, notice how 
quickly they will learn and how easily they will remember the name. 
Geography ought not to be studied without continual reference to 
a globe. It should be looked at during every lesson, and it would 
gradually stamp upon the minds of the scholars such a livel}^ image 
of the sphericit}^ of the earth and of the relative positions and sizes 
of continents, islands, oceans, &c., as would never be effaced. 

I find in most geographies, lists of questions directing pupils to 
learn the situations of small towns, or villages, or insignificant 
rivers or lakes, as: Where is Toudou, Tzentziu, Sewah, &c., &c. ? 
Such places are of no consequence; the scholar has no assistance 
from the association of ideas in mastering what may be truly called 
his task ; and in ascertaining the position of places, which might as 
well be called by the letters of the alphabet as by the names used 
in the book. I should request the scholar to find out the localities 
only of the more important places, and which these are can be 
easily known from the book. Why should he be called upon to 



132 INSTITUTE ADDEESSES. 

burden Lis memory with, a mass of useless details forgotten as soon- 
as acquired? You do not wish to make of him a Geographical 
Gazeteer. You cannot expect him to know the locality of every 
place upon the earth from Borioboloo Gha to London. You must 
draw the line somewhere; draw it then between those places which 
are of importance and those which are not. After leaving school, 
the scholar can easily ascertain the position of any place in which 
he may haj^pen to be interested. 

I make these remarks because pupils, at exhibitions, have been 
called iTpon to run through long catalogues of names of rivers, lakes, 
seas, oceans, capes, islands, mountains, states, cities, towns, &c. It 
is Avell that children should know these, to a certain extent, but this 
is by no means the important part of geograph3\ They should also 
become familiar Avith the grand facts and the leading principles; the 
real and comparative sizes of countries, using their own State as a 
unit; the comimrative population of difierent countries and large 
cities, taking the population of Californiti and San Francisco as the 
units of measure; the grand features of countries, such as the moun- 
tain and river systems; the climate of different parts of the world, 
and the causes affecting it; the various productions of the globe; the 
extraordinary natural curiosities found upon the earth; the great 
ocean surrounding tlie land, and inviting the nations to commerce; 
the kind of people that live in any land, their religion, their pecu- 
liarities, their social and political condition, and many other subjects 
which will suggest themselves to the comj^etent instructor. 

If geography were taught in this manner, should you think it 
possible for children to consider the top of a map to be up, and the 
bottom down, and that, consequentl}', all rivers which flow into the 
Arctic Ocean must run up hill? Or to state that Cuba and Massa- 
chusetts are of about the same size ? Answers which have actually 
been given in schools of considerable reputation. 

The elements of composition are almost invariably a stumbling- 
block to the young — and, strange as the statement may appear, I 
think the principal reasons for this fact are that it is not commenced 
early enough, but is put off until the pupil is considerably advanced 
in his other studies, and that he is then usually told to write a com- 
position upon some subject — perhaps an abstract one — about which 
he know^s nothing, and in which he cannot, of course, feel the 
slightest interest. AVho does not remember the vacuity of mind and 
vexation of spirit with which, in his youthful days, he addressed 
himself to the set task of writing an essay upon such a theme as — 
Virtue, its own Reward ; The Study of Hisfori/, &c. ? Of what fright- 
ful dimensions, and how supernaturally white, looked the blank 
sheet (blank as our own minds) of foolscap, which we were to fill 
with our own thouglits (so the master directed) without receiving 
any assistance from our friends. How frequently we thrust the pen 
into the inkstand in the vain hope to hook up some idea which 
might be concealed in that Stygian abyss! How desi^airingly we 
scratched our heads, how closely we scrutinized the walls and the 
ceiling, as if we expected to catch by the tail some stray idea which 
might be lurking in some corner or crevice of the room ! How 
firmly did we for the time believe in the non-existence of mind, and 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 133 

ihe existence of nothing but matter throughout the universe! And 
then, if, after all this cudgeling of our brains, something did come 
into our heads, whispered, doubtless, by the pitying spirit of some 
repentant pedagogue, did we not make the most of it ? Did we not 
dilute it, and dilate it, and amplify it, and spread it out, in the 
largest hand, upon lines ruled at least two inches apart, being very 
careful to prevent any quarreling between the words, by placing 
them at such a distance as to make it impossible for them to cross 
swords with one another! 

Now, the remedy for this unfortunate state of things consists in 
■ asking children to write upon those subjects only which thej' under- 
stand, or which relate directly to, or spring out of, their studies, or 
in which they would naturally, as boys and girls, take an interest. 
A multitude of such questions, drawn from the everyday pursuits, 
•amusements, and occupations of the j'oung, will suggest themselves 
to the qualified teacher. It is highly important that the exercise of 
writing out their own thoughts should commence early. Very soon 
after children begin to think, and are capable of using and writing 
small words, a slate and pencil should be put into their hands, and 
they should be brought to express their thoughts in their own lan- 
guage, no matter how short the sentences or the words. In most of 
the schools for the deaf and dumb, the pu^Dils begin to write ex- 
ercises of this character after two years' instruction — in some sooner. 
And, certainly, if this can be done by those unfortunately dej)rived 
of speech and hearing, it can be accomplished by those possessing 
all their faculties. I have known scholars, in other respects excel- 
lent, who found great difficulty in expressing themselves either 
orally or in writing. They were deficient in language. They 
ought to have been from an early period frequently practised in 
the use of their mother tongue. The exercises should be made 
more difficult, as the pupil becomes older; for beginners, they 
should, of course, be of the simplest character. As soon as a child 
can write legibly, he should be put to writing short phrases — 
original or from dictation; and, as a part of this exercise, he 
should be taught spelling, the dividing of words into syllables, 
punctuation, the rules for the use of the capital letters, &c. Teachers 
complain that it is difficult for scholars to learn to sjoell correctly; 
and so it is, especially from the use of spelling-books alone. To 
become a very correct sjoeller, is the labor of years on the part of 
the pupil. It is continual practice in the writing of sentences, not 
isolated words, that makes the good speller; and pupils cannot learn 
to spell correctly without being more in the habit of writing than 
they now are. A man who writes onl}^ a letter or two a year is 
likely to be a jDoor speller; but one who, from his occupation, writes 
every day, is rarely faulty in this respect. Consider, too, in piractis- 
iug such simple lessons in composition as I recommend, how many 
valuable things the}' are at the same time acquiring. Besides punc- 
tuation, spelling, the use of capital letters, &c., they are, or should 
be, improving their handwriting; they are exercising their minds 
pleasantly by the invention of sentences, short or long; they are 
learning the meanings and the right use of words; they are gradu- 
all}' becoming acquainted with their own language, and accustomed 



134 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

to express their thoughts appropriately. Think how desirable an 
acquisition this last will be to every boy and girl upon entering into 
life, and how many have regretted the want of it. 

I agree to the opinion, that it is a wicked waste of time to confine 
children, year after year, to copj'-books in penmanship. After a 
certain stage has passed — and that not a very late one — handwrit- 
ing should be made the common and every-day means of acquiring 
and reducing to practice a knowledge of orthography, punctuation^ 
the construction of sentences, &c. Children who have been kept 
in their copy-books until they could write a beautiful hand have, if 
required to write down sentences of their own composition, produced 
illegible and disgraceful scrawls, abounding in errors of punctua- 
tion and spelling. This statement proves the importance of early 
combining handwriting, punctuation, and spelling, in one exercise of 
the pupil's own composition; of departing from the beaten track, 
and of making, as soon as possible, scholars do the whole work for 
themselves without pattern or assistance. 

Similar remarks to those which I have made are applicable to the 
subject of Declamations. Let the boys speak only pieces which they 
fully understand and appreciate, suitable to their age, and expres- 
sive of such thoughts, feelings, and interests, as are natural to boys, 
not men. I take no interest in seeing a stripling ascend the ros- 
trum, and, in tones intended to be very impressive, exclaim: " There 
stands Bunker Hill Monument," with a gesture directed at the 
stove-pipe. I object to hearing a youthful prodigy shriek, in the 
shrillest treble, " My voice is still for war." I refuse to lend my 
ears, although urgently requested to do so, in the well known line, 
beginning — 

"Friends, Eomans, countrymen." 

I am not at all withered by the tone of contempt with which the 
embryo orator " hurls back the base insinuation, with scorn and 
defiance, into the teeth of the contemptible and inefficient member 
of the opposite party." I have seen, in a California paper, a notice 
of an exhibition, in which it was stated that the Great Debate be- 
tween "Webster and Hayne was conducted with decorum by the 
youthful Senators. Well, I am glad it was; I am thankful that no 
violation of parliamentary propriety occurred, calling for the inter- 
ference of the Sergeant-at-Arms. But why should boj's personate 
Demosthenes, Cicero, Burke, Webster, Clay, or James Buchanan? 
Why not simply and naturally be iJiemHelves ? 

Who would shorten this blissful period by introducing into it the 
passions, strifes, and ambition of men ? Let boys be hoys in every 
sense of the word, while they are such in years, and neither on nor 
off the stage ape the bearing, passions, or language of men. I do 
not wish to be understood as saying that appeals to the highest and 
best feelings of our nature, that the noble and patriotic sentiments 
of our great orators cannot be appreciated by bo^'s. Far from it. 
But I wish particular pains to be t^ken by the teacher to avoid 
pieces which do not lie within the comprehension or the experience 
of the pupil; and let those selected be as thorouglil}- studied and 
understood as the lessons in reading, to which I have alluded, or 
any otlier lessons, in the school. 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 135 

I cannot condemn too strongly all dramatic exhibitions, conducted 
by schools, in which scenes from plays are repi'esented with scenery, 
dresses, music, &c. I do not object to a good dialogue or polylogue, 
such as is adapted to interest the youthful mind and touch to finer 
issues the youthful heart, spoken in the usual manner. But I am 
opposed to dramatic representations, accompanied, to use the tech- 
nical word, with all the properties. I do not know that any exhi- 
bition of this kind has ever occurred in connection with the Free 
Schools of America, and I hope none such ever will. There is no 
talent in sjjouting. Do not boys have too much inclination for the 
stage already without its being stimulated ? And what a waste of 
time there is in getting up such representations; precious time 
which might be, and ought to be, spent in familiarizing the pupil 
with all the fundamental branches of a good, sound, English edu- 
cation, without which they cannot expect to be useful to themselves 
or to society. 

You must perceive of what primary importance I consider it is, 
that children should know the meaning of every thing they attempt 
to learn. It is astonishing with what facility they will use words, 
or give an answer, to which they attach an erroneous meaning, or 
perhaps, no meaning whatever. This was much more the case for- 
merly than at present, since our fathers did not, in many respects, 
pursue the natural course in the education of children. 

How pleasantly and successfully nature teaches the infant! No 
sooner has it begvm to exercise its senses, first, probably, the touch, 
in perceiving warmth, to open its eyes, to take food, to j^erceive 
odors, to hear sounds, than it begins to acquire knowledge. In the 
exercise of these powers the infant takes great delight. That dur- 
ing the first months of a child's life, its progress is highly satisfac- 
tory, is evident to a very ordinary observer; its first lispings show 
how much interest it finds in the aj)pearances of surrounding ob- 
jects; its first observations are listened to and receive that degree 
of attention which they demand; and it is not till the pressure of 
other domestic duties, or other inclinations, divide the mother's 
care, that the inquiries of the infant are neglected, and it is left, 
often discouraged and disheartened. A child obtains its notions as 
as we do, by seeing, sounding, feeling, smelling, and tasting ob- 
jects. " Do not meddle" puts a stop to these processes. In cases 
of doubt and uncertainty, it asks for information, and is, perhaps. 
told, "Little children should be seen, and not heard." After a few 
years, the child is placed at school, where, instead of that natural 
course being pursued which should turn to account the observa- 
tions and knowledge he has already stored up, he is often forced 
upon studies for which he shows no inclination; he is taught icoj-ds, 
instead of things ; and his memory is loaded with j^hrases and rules, 
which he does not understand. 

Thus, his education commences, and thus a path, which might be 
strewn with flowers to allure, is choked with brambles to impede, 
his progress. The thorny track is traveled over, and for a long 
time the pvipil has only confused notions floating in his mind, to 
the exclusion of that precise and distinct knowledge which lies 
within the grasp of those^^faculties which nature courts him to ex- 



136 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

ercise. We all know that in many schools children have been 
taught, nay, are even now taught, as if they had to use only one 
or two of the senses. A child who possesses in perfection all the 
senses, should have them all exercised. We are, none of us, per- 
haps, more than half educated in this respect. The five senses 
are the means of communication between the outer world and the 
spirit within. It is through these media that the child for some 
time receives all its knowledge. A late writer says of the infant 
of two years old: " He has acquired more knowledge during this 
short period than he generally does on the present plan of in- 
struction through the eight or ten succeeding years of his life, 
and it is a striking instance of the benevolence of the Creator, and 
a jDrelude of the vast extent of knowledge the child is afterwards 
capable of acquiring, that all these acquisitions are made, not only 
without pain, but, in the greater number of instances, are accom- 
panied with the highest enjoyment." 

In the school-room, we should imitate as much as possible the 
method of nature. Young children are not reflecting or reasoning 
beings; they have no appreciation of abstractions; they are for the 
tangible, the real, the concrete. It is through their senses that 
nature is acquainting them with the material world, and how fresh, 
active, and vigilant their senses are, and what untiring pleasure 
they take in their exercise. 

Children should be taught by things as much as possible, by words 
as little as 2iossible. The latter may kill any idea, but the reality 
rnaketh alive. On this account, I consider object-teaching as a de- 
cided improvement in our schools. It is an excellent plan, when- 
ever practicable, to show the scholars whatever may be the subject 
of the lesson, or, if that cannot be done, then a drawing or picture 
of it. Their interest is thus awakened; every eye is sure to be wide 
open; the information imparted is correct; there can be no mistake 
about it. How quickly, also, it is gathered; how much time it 
takes to convey, by description, through the ear, a full and accur- 
ate idea of what may, perhaps, be understood at a glance of the 
eye, and so impressed upon the mind as never to be forgotten. 
There are some teachers who should be informed that they do not 
have under their charge Institutions for the Blind; but that their 
pupils have eyes, and would rejoice in an ojiportunity to use 
them. 

The importance of real objects, natural and artificial models, pic- 
torial representations, experimental and other practical elucida- 
tions, cannot be too strongly urged on those who have the direction 
of the young mind. In most of the subjects which form the school 
business, such illustrations may be introduced. The school-room 
should be furnished with receptacles for works of art and nature; 
the pupils themselves would be the most valuable and active con- 
tributors to such collections; and those sj^ecimens which are ap- 
parently the most humble will often be found to be the most use- 
ful. Visits to mines, manufactories, to the sea-shore, to fields and 
woods, would furnish great additions to such a store. Minerals, 
vegetables, woods, metals, animal substances, insects, shells, &c., 
are easily obtained. The arrangement and classification of these 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 137 

objects would call into exercise faculties wliicli are now scarcely 
ever developed. One writer says that he has known boys of twelve 
years of age who could recognize and refer to their proper class al- 
most evei-y object around them in nature, and gives it as his opinion 
that a wide range of descriptive natural history may be imparted at 
that age. 

The world around us is fair and beautiful, and full of wonders; 
it is always speaking to the heart of man, though the cares of life 
may prevent him from hearing its voice. But it is in the morning of 
life, when the heart is free from anxiety, when the spirits are light 
and buoyant, when the senses are the most acute, the curiosity in- 
satiable, and creation fresh and new, that its language finds a will- 
ing and a charmed ear. 

How do the young enjoy the glories of sunrise, a lovely prospect, 
a ramble through the woods, or along the sea-shore, and how much 
quicker than their elders do they notice any little circumstance that 
may occur! ^ And what a pity it is to close upon them this broad 
face of nature which God himself has spread before them for their 
contemi^lation and delight, and shut them up within four walls, 
where they are told to keep their eyes on their lessons, which are 
some pages of a jDrinted book ? Cage the lark, tie up the forest 
deer — and you do not act more against nature than has been done 
in sentencing children to imprisonment six hours a day within the 
blank walls of some penitentiary of a school-house. 

Now, I know very well that geography, grammar, and arithmetic 
are indispensable. They must be learnt, and well learnt. The 
fundamental branches of a good English education must not be 
neglected. But while I would not have these in the least interfered 
with, I would urge it ujDon all connected with schools not to disre- 
gard the natural sciences. The study will, I am sure, contribute to 
the pleasure and improvement of both teachers and scholars, and 
promote, instead of retarding, the progress of the latter in ttieir 
other studies. These first books can be understood by any teacher 
whose " heart is in her vocation;" in fact, such a teacher will be 
delighted with them; and if she catches the true spirit of observa- 
tion, she will be continually led to add facts of her own gathering 
to those which the author has preserved. 

It is certainly possible, during the seven or eight years spent in 
the Grammar Schools, to pay some attention to the natural sciences. 
Do not shut the children out from them during this the golden 
period of their lives for studying them . Consider a few of the ad- 
vantages to the discipline of the jDupil's mind in pursuing these 
sciences. How much are his powers of observation improved by 
the study of nature ! And this is no small thing. How few people 
see things just as they are! How often do witnesses under oath 
disagree with regard to material circumstances in relation to events 
occurring before their eyes, and where all had equal opportunities 
of seeing! Men are unwilling to trust their own senses in reference 
to matters a little out of the line of their own business. They will 
tell yovi they are no judges in such cases. Have not persons been 
made believers in spiritualism and animal magnetism, because their 
9 



138 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

observing faculties were not sufficiently awake to see througli the 
deception ? 

But after things are seen (and it is a very important thing to see 
them accurately and fully), then comes the exercise of the faculty 
of comparison. Now this faculty implies a great deal. We com- 
pare things, not merely to see their resemblances, but their differ- 
ences. He who can do this well, is no ordinary person; he who 
can do it remarkably well, is one out of ten thousand. Men differ 
greatly in their ability to perceive resemblances and differences. 
An unfortunate lawyer is compelled to take his seat in mortification, 
by the Judge's showing him that the cases he had cited are not an- 
alogous to that before the Court, and consequently not at all applic- 
able. The great business of buying and selling depends, as one 
may say, upon comparison. It sometimes happens that the best of 
friends will get angry in a discussion, when the difference between 
them is a trifle, a fact of which they may afterwards become aware, 
much to their astonishment. We consider it a compliment to any 
one, when we say that he has a discriminating mind; he can make 
distinctions. Now, the natural "sciences teach how to observe, and how 
to distinguish tilings correctly — which is, in fact, the greater part of 
education, and that in which people otherwise well educated are 
sometimes surprisingly deficient. 

It must not be forgotten that the course of study in the Grammar 
Schools should be comprehensive enough to meet the wants and 
tastes of every mind. Now, the list is by no means small of those 
who have been pronounced dunces at school, who have afterwards 
been widely distinguished for their attainments in science. Hugh 
Miller, who has been mentioned, is an instance in point. Dr. 
Franklin was probably considered by his teacher as arithmetic 
proof, and, perhaps, as stupid in other respects; the reason being 
that there was no study pursued in the school which interested the 
youthful philosopher, who was born to be an observer of nature. 
Many other instances to the same effect might be mentioned. In- 
troduce, then, into the Common Schools the study of Nature, and 
make provision for those whose tastes, perhaps whose geniiis, lies in 
that direction. 

I know that the general impression is, that the study of any 
branch of natural science is a study of hard words, particularly in 
the case of natural history. It is surprising to notice how many 
school-books will commence with pages of hard words and defini- 
tions, the purpose of which at that stage is unintelligible. This is 
not the case, however, with the books I have mentioned. They are 
simple, and suited to the j'oung. The great and interesting facts 
are noticed; hard names are explained, and the definitions given 
only when it becomes necessary in the course of the works, and 
thus the pupil is not disheartened or disgusted at the very begin- 
ning. We must wait until the mind has become more mature be- 
fore the scholar can attend to classification or to generalization. 

It must not be overlooked that, in consequence of the great ad- 
vances made in the physical sciences, they are much more the 
objects of attention now than formerly. The great discoveries of 
modern times, more or less intimately connected with the welfare 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 139 

and the progress of society, are made in these sciences, and the 
physical arts themselves have received a new impulse. We must 
ieep pace with them in our schools. 

The public are little aware how much interest is taken by natural- 
ists the world over in the natural history of California. The State 
has been visited and explored, in some parts, for that purpose by 
agents from most of the prominent universities and societies in the 
world. The distinguished naturalist, Agassiz, states that he has a 
friend in San Francisco who has sent him an amount of specimens 
greater than all those collected by all the United States Exploring 
Expeditions put together. 

Is it not high time for the "citizens of California to take an interest 
in this subject, and to introduce it into the Public Schools, so as to 
give every young man desirous of entering upon these pursuits an 
opportunity to make some, at least, of the necessary preparations; 
and is there any country where such studies are more needed, or 
will be more useful to the public and to the individual ? 

There is a very strong desire at the East to introduce more ex- 
tensively into their schools the study of the natural sciences, includ- 
ing natural history. They acknowledge their remissness in this 
respect, and all concur in the imjDortance and necessity of this 
change being made. 

In a lecture, delivered by Agassiz, are the following remarks: 

" Our school system has been developed in a manner which has 
produced the most admirable results, and is imitated everywhere as 
the most complete and the most successful; but, while we have at- 
tained the highest point in that respect, we are also best prepared 
by that very jDosition to make any further improvement which may 
lead to a better future. And I believe that the introduction of the 
study of natural history, as a branch of the most elementary' educa- 
tion, is what can be added to what is already so admirable a system. 
The difficult art of thinking can be acquired more rapidly by this 
method than by any other. When we study moral or mental phil- 
osoi:)hy in text-books, which we commit to memory, it is not the 
mind we cultivate — it is the memory alone. The mind may come 
in; but if it does in that method, it is only in an accessory way. 
3\it if we learn to think, by unfolding thoughts ourselves, from the 
examination of objects around us, then we acquire them ourselves, 
and we acquire the abilitj' of applying our thoughts in life. The 
teacher who is competent to teach the elements of this science, 
must, of course, feel a deep interest in it; he must know how to 
select those topics which are particularly instructive and best 
adapted to awaken an interest to sustain it, and to lead forward to 
the understanding of more difficult questions. He should be 
-capable of rendering the subject attractive, interesting, and so 
pleasant, indeed, that the hour for the school should be welcomed 
by the scholar instead of beiug dreaded as bringing something im- 
jjosed by duty, and not desirable in itself." 

It may be added to what has been said by Agassiz, in illustration 
of the benefits to be derived from the study of natural history, that 
it is a fact, which every one acquainted with the subject will admit, 
that our crops are every year injured to the extent of many thou- 



14:0 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

sands of dollars by the depredatioBS of insects whose habits are not 
properly understood. In this way, the Hessian fly, the canker 
worm, the apple worm, the apple and joeach borers, the curculio, 
the cotton worm, the tobacco worm, the corn borer, the rice weevil, 
the wheat midge, and other insects not yet known, make way with, 
capital and labor to an enormous extent. There are many insects 
injurious to the grape-vine, to one of which a volume has been de- 
voted. Investigations into the habits of such insects have been at- 
tended with the best results, one of the most useful of which has 
been to stop the farmer from destroying his friends with his enemies 
amon^ insects, as he had been in the habit of doing. The best way 
of finding an effectual remedy for these injuries is to diffuse and cul- 
tivate in our schools a taste for natural history. 

In a moral jDoint of view, this study, as well as that of all the 
natural sciences, is of the highest importance. I never heard of a 
real lover of nature who was a bad man. They exhibit to man the 
thoughts of the Creator, for all the arrangements which he sees 
around him are manifestations of the Divine Mind. In the book of 
nature we can read a portion of the laws and the designs of the 
Almighty. The more diligently any one pursues these studies the 
more deeply he is impressed with the abundant evidences of the 
power, the wisdom, and the benevolence of the Creator. He sees 
that a drop of water is full of wonders, as well as the starry heavens; 
that the tiniest insect that sjDorts in the sun-beam is not so insignif- 
icant as to be beneath the care of its Maker, nor the Island Uni- 
verses, scattered through the realms of space, too vast for His 
power to control. Every creature made by the Divine Hand he 
sees to be perfect, with an organization exactly suited to its wants, 
and its place in the scale of being, and adapted to contribute to its 
happiness. God j^rovided for all His creatures. Now, the youth- 
ful heart readily understands and feels the lesson which Nature 
teaches; it will not rest satisfied merely with Nature and Nature's 
laws, but willingly and instinctively is led through them up to 
Nature's God. It is touched by His goodness; it reverences His 
power and majesty; as the mind expands, it feels that He is the 
source lof all we j)ossess; it begins to feel the need of His aid and 
protection, and then earnestly to invoke them. In this manner it 
at length realizes the great truth, that in Him we live and move, 
and have our being; it does not read these as unmeaning words, 
but is pervaded with their deep signification. It is imjDressed with 
the heartfelt conviction, that there can be no more utter and dread- 
ful ruin than to disobey the commands of this Good and Just Being, 
and that there is no greater happiness than to do His will and re- 
ceive His approbation. 

I consider it an evil to stimulate the intellect, almost, perhaps, 
to its utmost exertions, and to neglect the moral training of the 
scholar, or to treat the latter as if it were of minor consequence, as 
if the object were to make smart linguists, or mathematicians, or 
chemists, instead of complete men. We have, undoubtedly, too 
many smart men in the world already; that is, smart in the bad 
sense of the word, and yet, perhaps, in a sense by which they feel 
complimented. 



INSTITUTE ADDEESSES. 141 

"What is wanted more than anything else is true men, men of 
principle, men fearing God, loving their neighbor, loving their 
whole country, and cherishing its free institutions; men who stand 
for the right as immovable as the eternal pj^ramids; whose word, 
whose look is truth itself; whose honor can no more be tarnished 
than a sun-beam can be soiled; in whose breasts the ruling maxim 
-is not "Cotton is king," nor " Gold is king," but everywhere, both 
in their most secret retirement, as well as inpviblic position, reigns, 
enthroned in their hearts and obeyed in their lives, the divine prin- 
ciple — DUTY IS King forever ! 

Now, the child is not all intellect, any more than it is all con- 
science; it has a sense of right and wrong, and this sense is silently 
addressed in a hundred different ways, as the questions arise 
whether the pupil shall do this thing or not, whether he shall con- 
fess or conceal a certain fault, &c. I know that the importance of 
this subject is adequately felt by the public school teachers of San 
Francisco, and that much attention is paid by them to moral in- 
struction, and pains taken to impress upon the minds of their pupils 
the great religious truths in Vv^hich all are agreed. At the same 
time, while this is done, all sectarianism is carefully avoided. 

I would have this moral sense carefully cherished as the voice of 
God; I would have it kept sensitive and acute, and properly trained 
and educated. I would have every part of the nature of the pupil 
well and proportionately exercised and developed — the physical, the 
intellectual, and the moral, the body, the mind, and the heart; the 
last the most carefully of all, since out of it are the issues of life. 
I would tell the pupil that the acquisition of knowledge is valuable, 
"but that, though his attainments in science and art, and in all learn- 
ing, were transcendent, though he might "speak with the tongues 
of men and of angels," and " understand all mysteries and all 
knowledge," yet, if he had not a good character, sound moral prin- 
•ciples, he would be nothing but a miserable failure. With all the 
energy I possessed, and all the difterent methods of appeal I could 
invent, I would enjoin it upon him to strive to become a good, true, 
and noble man. 

And such words, addressed in the spirit of affection to the young, 
go directly to their hearts. Their impulses can easily be turned 
into the right channel. They have a desire after excellence in the 
acquisition of knowledge; but if their sense of right and wrong is 
properly appealed to, I believe it can be made the ruling power of 
their lives. When this result is accomplished, how blessed is the 
work! It is beautiful to look upon the young, with their clear and 
honest eyes, their frank and beaming countenances, their warm and 
pure hearts beating high with aspirations after goodness and truth, 
and desiring that every evening mhj find them more worthy of the 
approbation of their teachers, their parents, and of Heaven. 

Fellow Teachers! from our connection with the Public Schools, 
we must take a deep interest in their prosperity and success, and 
earnestly wish that each revolving year may render them more effi- 
cient. The Common School System is the child of the people, in 
which they take great pride. The Public Schools are emphatically 
the People's College. From them graduate the bone and sinew of 



142 INSTITUTE ADDKESSES. 

the community — men of sound common sense, of good principles^, 
and with stout hearts, who will stand by the Common Schools a» 
the bulwark of their rights and liberties, and who will defend them 
against bold and open attack, or vile and secret slander. Their" 
crowning glory is, that their doors are open freelj'^ to all; that in 
them the poorest child is the equal of the richest, and may lay the 
foundation of an education which may lead him to employment, to 
comj)etence, to resiDectability, naj, even to high station and to a 
glorious fame. Many a poor man has denied himself in order that 
his little ones might attend school decently attired, and has had his 
last moments cheered by the thoughts that he had faithfully given 
his children every advantage afibrded by the Public Schools — feel- 
ing in that fact a strong assurance of their future good conduct and 
welfare. 

The Common Schools can show ujoon their rolls the names of dis- 
tinguished men who laid in them the foundation of a world-wide 
renown. Franklin, of whom I have spoken; Clay, in the log cabin 
school-house of Peter Deacon, with no floor but the earth, and no 
window but the door; Webster, in the log school-house kej^t by 
Master Tappan in the wilds of New Hampshire; George Stephen- 
son, the founder, and, to a great extent, the inventor, of the present 
system of locomotion on railroads, commencing at eighteen years 
of age in a village school to learn his A, B, C, like a little child; 
Fulton, Bowditch, and hosts of others. They commenced life in 
poverty. Had not the Common School afforded them an oppor- 
tunity to begin their education free of expense, how few of them 
might ever have been known to the world ? How man}' of those 
yet unborn, and destined to immortal renown in their various 
capacities, would, but for the Free Common School, be lost in eter- 
nal night! We have a right, then, to feel an honest jDride in this 
great system with which we are connected. 

Our profession is humble, laborious, and exhausting. The ser- 
vices of the teacher are not adequately appreciated in any com- 
munity. Neither fame nor wealth belongs to him. He is not al- 
lowed even the designation — Honorable. He is overworked and 
underpaid. And yet his life has its compensations. I know noth- 
ing more touching and more grateful to the teacher than, at the 
close of the year, when he is bidding farewell to those who afe 
passing forever from his care, for him to see every countenance 
turned towards him with affection and gratitude — to know that 
these minds have received from him wholesome knowledge — that, 
by his influence and example, good principles have been implanted 
in their hearts — and that he has troops of friends growing up and 
becoming every year more numerous, who will voluntarily pay him 
that honor, love, and obedience, which they feel to be due to the 
benefactor of their youth. 

The faithful teacher has another reward, of which nothing can 
deprive him. It is the approbation of his own conscience; it is the 
consciousness that he is humbly imitating the Creator and Preserver 
of all, in doing good. " Think not," said Sydney Smith to an aged, 
poverty-stricken master teaching the art of reading or writing to 
some tattered scholars, ' ' you are teaching that alone ; yoa are pro- 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 143 

tecting life, insuring property, fencing the altar, guarding the gov- 
ernment, giving space and liberty to all the fine powers of man, 
and lifting him up to his own place in the order of creation." This 
well describes the nature of the teacher's office. 

It was the boast of the Emperor Augustus, that he found Rome 
brick, and left it marble. Let it be the higher praise of the Public 
School teachers, that California was found a wilderness, but that 
they have contributed by their exertions to till its valleys and cities 
with a virtuous and intelligent population — a richer treasure than 
all her nodding harvests, than all her mines of gold. 



4. CONCERNING COMMON SENSE IN TEACHING.* 

It is one of the highest compliments we can pay a man to say that 
he possesses good common sense. The article in question is cer- 
tainly one of the most important qualifications of a successful 
teacher. Call it "tact," or "knack," or "faculty," or "gift," or 
whatever you please, it implies always a clear conception of things 
as they exist, and an adaptation of means to the end sought. 

In broaching this subject, I feel that I may place myself in the 
situation of the learned divine, whose third and principal division 
of his discourse was "concerning that of which Ave know nothing." 
I do not propose to treat of a course of instruction for graded 
schools, where children are presumed to be in regular attendance 
for a series of years, and where provision is made for a specific 
course of learning for all the faculties of the mind; but to consider 
briefly those schools remote from cities, and continued only a part 
of the year. "What are they expected to accomplish, and what view 
should the common sense teacher take of his field of labor? Many 
of our public schools, in the sparsely settled districts of the State, 
are kept less than six months in the year, and even then the attend- 
ance is irregular and inconstant. Pupils may be expected to attend 
school from the age of six to fourteen ; and allowing six months at- 
tendance in each 3'ear — a high average when one-fourth attend only 
three months of the year — the actual time at school will be reduced 
to four years. The question 2^1'opounded by common sense is : 
"What course of instruction will impart the greatest amount of use- 
ful information, and best fit the children for the duties of common 
life ? 

Now, hardly any course of study or mental exercise can be sought 
out which shall be utterly useless. The driest and dullest style of 
memorizing musty text books, and the most parrot-like verbatim 
recitations, involve some thought, and are not without some advan- 
tages. The thoughtful man of wealth, who, in order that his son 
should not grow up in idleness, compelled him to wheel a huge pile of 
stones from one part of his garden to another, and then wheel them 
back again, and so kept him wheeling them back and forth each 
day of the year, was wiser than the parent who allows his son to do 
nothing. But it would have been more sensible in the man of 

*Eead before California State Teachers' Institute, 1863. 



144 INSTITUTE ADDKESSES. 

wealth had he set his boy at work upon some useful labor, which 
would have interested his attention, instead of keeping him engaged 
in unprofitable drudgery. 

I cannot helj) thinking that sometimes in our schools' we set the 
boys to wheeling stones, instead of building walls, or clearing fields 
for future harvests. For instance, keeping a boy for years drilling 
on the stereotyped forms of solving Mental Arithmetic, committing 
a great mass of routine verbiage, when he ought to learn the simple 
forms of Written Arithmetic used in business life, is undoubtedly 
" wheeling stones." The boy may repeat the " solution," and the 
" forms," and the " conclusion," and the " therefores," and " where- 
fores," with a marvelous skill, and yet it is not common-sense 
teaching. A man was brought before an Eastern king, and extolled 
by the courtiers for his wonderful powers of endurance, because he 
could stand on one leg for twenty-four hours. "A goose can stand 
longer than that," said the king. 

When, in school, we teach boys and girls the abstract rules and 
scientific mysteries and technicalities of grammar, training them 
skillfully to analyze complex, compound,' and' involved sentences, 
but omitting to teach them by daily practice how to express com- 
mon thoughts in correct English, or how to talk correctly in ordi- 
nary' conversation, without using provincialisms or cant phrases — 
what are we doing but keeping them " wheeling stones," and feed- 
ing on husks ? 

When children study for years the columns of uncommon and 
obsolescent words, piled up in perpendicular obelisks, staring them 
in the face like huge exclamation marks of Avonder and surprise, and 
then leave school unable to write a list of articles wanted from the 
corner grocery without exciting the risibilities of the grocery man, 
or are unable to write a friendly letter without offending the eye by 
misspelling the commonest words — what have they been doing but 
" wheeling stones ? " 

So when scholars are kept forever drilling on elementary princi- 
ples and minute particulars, it is not in accordance with common 
sense. "Be thorough," is a good maxim ; but there is such a thing 
as being too thorough — of dwelling on particulars, to the neglect of 
essentials. A teacher may be yainfally particular, like a good aunt 
of mine, years ago, who was so distressingly neat that nobody ever 
took any comfort in her house. 

In Arithmetic, for instance, it is keeping a boy wheeling stones 
" to discipline his mind " a month in learning to explain in due 
form the reason of "inverting the divisor in dividing one fraction 
by another," if thereby he should fail to learn how to write a prom- 
missory note, compute simple interest, or make out a bill. A 
teacher from a graded city school would fail in an unclassified 
school, should he attempt to apply the same test of thoroughness, 
or to pursue the same exact course of study. Certain results must 
be obtained, to the sacrifice of many particulars which are all good 
in themselves. One great reason whj-- self-educated men are practi- 
cal workers, is that they learn nothing they do not ivant to use, and so 
learn it well. Concentration gives them strength. Napoleon dis- 
pensed with tents and luggage in his great armies, taking- only 
what he wanted to use — the sword and the bayonet. 



INSTITUTE ADDEESSES. 145 

It seems to me — aud the conclusion lias been growing stronger 
each year, during twelve years' experience in public school teaching 
— that no small joart of what children are required to learn might 
appropriately^ be headed : " Things ivortJi forgetting." Nature is 
wiser than we are, and casts off the useless surplus of facts and 
figures into utter oblivion. Run through an ordinary school 
geography, and see how many bushels of chaff to a single grain of 
wheat. Look at the compendious arithmetics, strike out nine- 
tenths of which, and the remainder would be more than sufficient. 
Look at the bulky grammar, grown fat by feeding on all other 
grammars printed since Lindley Murray's, of which, not even the 
authors could carry in their heads a moiety. Look at the school 
histories of our country, full to repletion of dates and chronological 
tables, containing more of details than any grown man in the 
United States could learn in a lifetime. I allude to these only to 
show how much a teacher must oinit in the school text books, and 
how essential that he should have common sense to guide him in 
selecting. 

A four years' course of studj"- in an unclassified school can neither 
be xery complicated nor very extensive. A matter-of-fact teacher 
would look at his work in something of this manner : These boys 
are, most of them, to become farmers, miners, mechanics, and 
laborers. All the scholastic education they receive will be gained 
here. These girls will, most of them, become the wives of farmers, 
miners, mechanics, and laborers. "What instruction is absolutely 
essential to these boys and girls to fit them to grow up respectable 
men and women? Letting alone the geniuses and the prodigies, 
they are of average mental capacity. "What shall be done with them ? 

First, they must learn to read, write, and spell the English lan- 
guage. Reading is usually taught well enough for all practical 
purposes, whether according to elocutionary rules or not ; but pen- 
manship and spelling are too often sadly neglected. Almost every 
man, in whatever occupation engaged, is called upon to write, more 
or less, every day of his life. Writing involves spelling, and both 
are unmistakable evidences of cultm-e, or want of it. Teach these 
three things thoroughly, so that every child fifteen years of age 
shall be able to read readily, to write legibly, and to spell correctly, 
the words in the English language most used in common life. 
Sacrifice everything to this — even let algebra remain a minus quan- 
tity, and the higher branches take a back seat. They are of vastly 
more practical value than arithmetic — the trite and venerable 
maxim, that the study of arithmetic is the best discipline of the 
mind, so often quoted by arithmetic-run-mad teachers, to the con- 
trary notwithstanding. A knowledge of arithmetic sufficient to 
enable men and women to keep accounts correctly, will suffice, 
letting alone the mental discipline of the reasoning faculties, so 
often harped about. Ben. Franklin was a dullard in arithmetic ; he 
grew up with pretty tolerable reasoning faculties, because he kept 
his perceptives wide awake. Don't let arithmetic, then, be the 
great nightmare of the school to squeeze out all the vitality from 
the scholars. Most Americans take naturally to reckoning dollars 
and cents, without the aid of text books. 



146 INSTITUTE ADDEESSES. 

Some knowledge of the geography of the world is necessary, and 
particularly that of our own country. But common sense declines 
to expect that little boys and girls should learn the names and loca- 
tions of the two thousand little round dots on the map of the 
United States, called towns and cities, with figures attached repre- 
senting the population; or the names and length of the five 
hundred little black lines, drawn like spiders' webs over the map, 
representing rivers. Neither is it necessary that they should com- 
mit to memory the entire returns of the last census. Strike out 
one half of the questions and answers in any school geography, and 
the remaining twentieth will be more than most children of average 
ability can learn and retain. How I wish some of these bookmakers 
had to learn their own books I Any teacher who would expect or 
compel his scholars to answer all the "questions in the book" on 
examination day, ought to be indicted for a lack of common sense; 
and any committeeman who should find fault because the scholars 
couldn't answer them, ought to be strapj^ed within an inch of his 
— collar. How many teachers, after years of study and daily use of 
the geography, can remember one fifth of the tenth-rate rivers and 
towns, or one twentieth of the hackneyed descriptions. I would 
flog a child of mine if he wouldn't forget such rubbish. 

A general knowledge of the leading events in the history of our 
own country, they should be expected to acquire; but if, on examin- 
ation day, they fail to tell the exact day and hour on which every 
battle of King Philip's war, the French and Indian war, or the 
Revolution, or the war of eighteen hundred and twelve, and exactly 
how many were killed, wounded, and missing; ur should they 
forget that wonderful account given by one school history, of two 
early settlers of New England, who were frightened up a tree by a 
lion, and remained there in perfect terror, and came safely down, 
the next day ! — common sense would not be shocked. 

Next in importance, comes a knowledge of language, and of the- 
meaning and use of words. This must be communicated by the- 
teacher, in questions on reading lessons, and in oral lessons. Dic- 
tionaries alone cannot impart it. Printed words are valuable only 
as the medium of ideas; if the medium is opaque, the ideas will be- 
muddy. After a knowledge of language, comes the framework of 
grammar. And here, I think, common sense steps in and dictates, 
that in order that scholars may learn to speak and write the English 
language correctly, they should be exercised in writing sentences,, 
and talking sentences, instead of continually tearing to pieces the 
sentences of others. Exercises on grammar, sufficient to enable 
them to write a letter, and speak plain English correctly, should be 
embraced in the course. 

Some little knowledge of physiology and hygiene should be im- 
parted, inasmuch as each boy has to take care of his own body, and 
when he ruins that by ignorance of the laws of health, he will find 
it very inconvenient to transfer his knowledge of arithmetic and ac- 
companying mental discipline to another corijus. And as most of 
the j'oung" girls will become mothers, and consequently the custo- 
dians of the constitutions of the next succeeding generation, common 
sense opens its eyes in astonishment that committeemen and school 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 147" 

teachers should ignore all allusion to physiology, anatomy, and 
the laws of health, and exalt arithmetic, algebra, and the fashion- 
able branches. 

A little drawing, a little vocal music, a little calisthenic and gym- 
nastic training, may be introduced as incidental amusements and 
recreations. Some provision should be made during the whole 
course for daily exercise of the perceptive and the expressive facul- 
ties, as well as for the reasoning powers. Children should be trained 
to habits of observation. They should be trained to distinguish 
colors; to tell the properties of the common objects by which 
they are surrounded; should be taught something of natural his- 
tory, at least enough to distinguish a dog from a coyote, or a 
grizzly bear from a calf, or potatoes from yams, or cauliflowers from 
cabbages. A boy instinctively turns to stories of birds, beasts, and 
fishes. 

Herein lies the most grievous deficiency of our schools : that they 
deal with the abstract instead of the real. I have repeatedly asked 
classes which could run off pages of questions in geography with 
marvelous rapidity, to point north, and the direction generally has 
been perpendicularly up to the zenith; they had no notion whatever 
of directions, except as the top and bottom of the majD. A city 
was to them a dot, nothing more; a river — a crooked line; and a 
mountain — a definition. How many classes have I seen versed in 
"the tables," who would estimate the dimensions of a room sixteen feet 
by twenty, in numbers ranging from five and forty to ten and eighty; 
how many who could not estimate the weight of an object weighing 
five pounds, within four pounds of its weight; how many that had no 
notion of a mile, except as three hundred and twenty rods; how 
many who could " parse like a book," and yet could not write five 
consecutive sentences in tolerable English! 

If common sense were a school-master, he would look with favor 
on the system of object training as supplying a basis of actual 
knowledge, on which the reasoning faculties should afterwards be 
exercised. He would also endeavor to collect a small school library, 
well knowing that many a boy who grows dull, listless, and lazy over 
his set tasks, will absorb general knowledge from readable books, as 
a thirsty plant drinks in the rain-drops of a summer shower. In 
governing his school, he would treat scholars like hviman beings, 
bearing in mind that children are born to be happy, not miserable; 
and that school ought to be made a pleasant place. ' 

The teacher must expect to leave much untaught. If he attempts. 
to teach everything, he will fail; for nobody ever svicceeded. He 
must expect to find some dull scholars, some obstinate ones, some 
vicious ones, some troublesome ones, some negative ones, some good 
ones; if he is a philosopher, gifted with a sublime common sense, 
he will go calmly and quietly at work, do his duty faithfully, and 
not worry about results — bearing in mind that all the stupid boys 
and dull scholars, somehow or other, generally grow up into respect- 
able average men and women. 



1 48 INSTITUTE , ADDEESSES. 



5. ADDRESS BY THOMAS STARR KING.* 

This audience, reiDresenting the mothers and fathers, the official 
forces and the rising life of this young, strange city, are to be con- 
gratulated on the event and occasion that calls us together. We 
welcome you to the service here with pride and joy. 

The corner-stone of any important representative edifice is laid 
with elaborate ceremonial. It is well to foster public interest in 
such forms. And it seems to me that it would be as fitting to recog- 
nize, with public rejoicing, the completion of a noble building, the 
moment when the workmen lay the last stone of the turret, the apex 
of the spire, the final tile on the dome. It was when the corner- 
stone of the earth was laid, that " the morning stars sang together, 
and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Can we believe — though 
we have no record or hint of the hallelujahs — that there was less 
jubilance amongst the holy hosts when "the heavens and the earth 
were finished, and all the host of them," and " God saw everything 
that he had made, and behold it was very good?" 

We are here to rejoice in this completed work. There is very 
little in the building itself, though it is commodious and cheerful, 
to awaken any enthusiasm. But as a school-room — a new structure 
to befriend civilization, in a State where the forces of good and evil 
meet in a more open and demonstrative wrestle, probably, than 
upon any other equal area on the globe — it does invite us to be 
glad, and to express our joy that it is added to the landscape of the 
city, and has sprung out of a deepening popular faith in the worth 
of education. 

And yet it is not simply a new schoolhouse that we are to conse- 
crate to its noble offices. It is the symmetry of an educational 
system in the city that we complete and establish. It is truly the 
top-stone, the crown, of an ideal edifice, whose co-ordinate j^arts 
are the excellent common schools of the city, that we now lift to its 
place with rejoicing. If there were any influence to be exerted by 
the establishment of this High School, in drawing away the public 
interest from the Grammar Schools, the jjublic pride in them, the 
public readiness to be taxed to sustain them, there would be no 
occasion for gratitude in the completion of this building. This 
would be an unfortunate service and hour. The Grammar Schools 
are the true fountains of health and power in a community. What- 
ever tends to slight them, or reduce their efficiency, or throw the 
shadow of public indifference upon them, is to be deplored, and to 
be strenuously resisted. The city and state are far more deeply 
interested in the general diffusion of the elements of knowledge than 
in the concentration of learning in a small percentage of the youth 
of our community. We want to equip tens of thousands for the 
toils and struggles of life, not to polish a few hundreds for a better 
chance to seize its prizes and wear its honors. We must never 
forget this. And if the erection of this High School into perma- 

* Delivered September 19, 1860, at the dedication of the Higli School building, 
Powell street. From The Bookseller, the first educational journal published in 
the State. 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 149^ 

nence threatened to abate the importance, or lower the dignity, or 
drain the energy of the Grammar Schools, this building, though it 
■were a hundred times more elegant, though it Tvere seemly in pro- 
portions as the Parthenon of Athens, would be a mistake and a 
disaster. 

I cannot but think, however, that we strengthen the ordinary 
schools of the city by confirming this one, and leading the com- 
munity to regard it with more favor and pride. Not only is the 
standard of a free education raised, but the earlier removal from 
the Grammar Schools of the scholars who wish to pursue a higher 
grade of studies, concentrates the interest and energies of the teach- 
ers there upon the progress of the average of students. The ordinary 
schools can hardly fail to give more thorough training in the elements 
of English education, by relieving the teachers from the responsi- 
bility of carrying small upper classes through a range of studies far 
above the average lessons; and the ambition that is excited to enter 
the High School must be felt, after awhile, as a very serviceable 
stimulant throughout the ranks of the scholars below. Wherever 
the plan has been tried of projecting schools on the system of 
Primary, Grammar, and High, it has been found that each grade 
helps the one beneath. No New England cities now, I am sure, 
could think of parting with their High Schools. They would 
account it deliberate mutilation of the symmetry of the educational 
system, and treason against the mental rights of the scholars who 
can spare two or three extra years for instruction and discipline. 

And we must not fail to take into account the needs and rights of 
the hundred and fifty youths, of both sexes, in our city, who are 
ready and willing to postpone their entrance into practical life, for 
the sake of a moi'e generous culture. The free-school system has- 
duties to them as manifest and binding as to the lowest class in a 
Grammar School. Let us rejoice that we can fulfill them in entire 
harmony with our duties to the mass of the children whose education 
is intrusted to us. Let us rejoice that we can see that all jealousies 
are unwise. Let us be glad and grateful, to-day, that we strengthen 
the whole structure of our teaching organization by this crowning 
school to which we here devote an excellent building. The masons 
lay, strong and compact, the stones which make the floor of the 
porch to an edifice after the Grecian style. They rear column after 
column along its front. But when the beautiful entablature is lifted 
aloft, to rest on the pillars, there is not only completed proportion, 
but more strength. Each column is firmer; the base itself is forti- 
fied; and the edifice stands in harmony with the force of gravitation. 
So, we believe, it is here. We send strength into the important 
schools below, the pillars and pavement of our public welfare, by 
the imjDort of this service of dedication. And I believe the whole 
system of education would attain final symmetry, and be still 
stronger in all its parts, if we had not only High Schools in our 
cities and large towns, but a free and largely planned University 
besides, in every State, in which the sons and daughters of the poor- 
est could obtain the best training which the resources of the State 
might afford, free of cost. When we get this, we shall have the 
majestic dome overarching and strengthening our intellectual temple. 
But very likely in all this I am speaking needless words. Perhaps 



150 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

I have done wrong to assume or hint that there can be any question, 
in any quarter, of the value of the school whose home we consecrate 
here, or of its advantageous relation to the other schools of which 
we are justly proud. Let us turn to other considerations that should 
awaken grateful joy here. 

It is now, throughout this State, the time of rejoicing in the har- 
vest. We have been reading in the papers glowing accounts of 
many district agricultural fairs. This very day the yearly State fair 
is to be inaugurated in the Capital. What interest is felt, through- 
out the State, in the improvements of stock, in the new varieties of 
fruit, in the jjroduction of more efficient and economical machinery 
for planting, reaping, threshing, stacking! The man who refines a 
breed of sheep; the man who brings from his ranch a calf or colt, 
j)erfect according to its type; the man who displays the noblest yoke 
of steers; the cultivator who offers to view the soundest and sweetest 
plums, the most lovely and savory peach, the weightiest cluster of 
grapes, or who can say the wisest word about preventing the curled 
leaf in peach trees, the rust in wheat, the "foul brood" among 
bees; yes, the man who produces a mammoth pumpkin, a monstrous 
sweet potato, a beet that will half fill a barrel, a watermelon as am- 
2^16 as Daniel Lambert in girth, is heard of throughout a county, 
perhaps throughout the limits of the State, 

What interest in education can we bring yet into competition with 
this scientific enthusiasm for vegetable and animal jDroducts? What 
would the honest answer be, taking the State through, if we should 
ask which the people of the State were more concerned about, a 
better type of calves or a higher grade of children; more efficient 
grazing-grounds or more thorough school training; vineyards that 
should double their profits, or methods of education that should 
e'quip pupils twice as efficiently for noble success in life; the reclaim- 
ing of tule lands, or the gathering of twice as many youth, who 
now receive no instruction, into the intellectual folds where they 
may have a teacher's care? Alas! we know what it would be. If 
one tithe, or one hundredth part, of the watchful, patient, cultured 
and strenuous exertion that has been expended by the general com- 
munity on peach-raising, short-horned cattle, the perfecting of 
horses and bee-culture, during the last five years, had been devoted 
to the training of children, and fitting them to be competent masters 
of their fathers' colts, and meadows, and carrot fields, the State, 
to-day, would be immeasurably advanced, beyond its present attain- 
ment, in civilization. We should not read such sad statistics as are 
forced upon us now, showing that hardly more than a third of the 
children of the State attend regularly any school. 

There is really some danger that we shall be pulled down, 
materialized, half -barbarized, by the very advance and splendor of 
our scientific control of the elements of agricultural opulence. One 
of our poets tells us that now 

" Tliiugs are in the saddle, 
Aud ride mankind." 

It behooves us to be a little careful lest we cultivate beeves and 
racers to such superiority over ourselves that they shall get the 
rapper hands, and we find ourselves, after a generation or so, in 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 151 

which animals rise aud children sink, j'oked and harnessed, owned 
hy our Durhams, and Alderneys, and Morgans, and perhaps fatted 
for their advanced and dominant appetites. 

The spiritual forces must be started soon in States like this, and 
trained to ten times their present vigor, or we shall be unable to 
wield the majestic armor and implements of our science and ma- 
terialistic culture. And this building, which lifts the torch of 
education higher, as a beacon to the State, which will turn out nobler 
specimens of young manhood and womanhood, invites us, by peculiar 
fitness, in this harvest-time, to rejoice in its comj)letion, and to 
express our gratitude by elaborate ceremonial and reverent j)rayer. 

And we should rejoice also to be here, to-day, in order to pay a 
conscious and deliberate tribute to the service of teachers in our 
civilization. Every time I enter a school-building I travel back to 
the time, twenty years ago (when I was a young man), when my 
name was enrolled in the army of instructors. During the three 
years of service appointed to me in that department, I learned so 
much of the difficulties and resiDonsibilities of the ofiice, that the 
stepping into a pulpit seemed like passing into an easier sphere of 
duty. It is not on abstract grounds and observation, but on trials 
which gave me my first knowledge of what serious responsibility is, 
and of how closely moral forces must be allied with intellectual 
ones in ever}' successful school, that my own reverence for the 
teacher's call and duty is based. And from that day to this it has 
been widening and deepening. 

We do not pay our social reverence wisely as yet, even in our 
most advanced and thoughtful communities. The men who do the 
most for the world are those who work scientifically upon the land, 
increasing its productiveness without exhausting its fertility — and 
the men who increase the mental and moral forces of the State. 
These classes are the fountains of lasting power, and the true con- 
servators of public health and vigor. In a trulj' ordered society, 
these classes would receive the heartiest and most stable honor. 

But as yet, alas, even in the most Christian districts of society, 
the question is scarcely raised, as a condition and gauge of respect, 
what the relation is between his employment and the permanent 
benefit of the community — what the moral aroma is of a man's gold 
and position. And so the best men work with very little recognition. 
The most useful ministers are those who work through years of 
quiet fidelity, encouraging good puri^oses in the village circle, warn- 
ing with sincere and uneloquent unction, the humble and steady 
friend of humble people, threading the life of a small community, 
through more than the j^ears of a generation, with a golden influence 
of charity, and fortunate in not having to see their names in half 
the issues of the newspaper press. Some of the purest pages of 
heroism might be copied from the long careers of country physicians, 
who spend themselves without the patronage and solace of cultured 
society, and cross the line of old age without a comjDetence. 

In the case of teachers, however, the fact is peculiarly striking. 
Think what an influence, during the past ten years, has been exerted 
upon the intellect and character of the best portions of our country, 
by the ambition of teachers to be more efficient in their work, by 
the establishment of journals of education, by county, district and 



152 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

State conventions of instructors, not sunned by public applause, 
not paid for by the public either, in which the wisest unfold the 
best results of their experience, and the youngeet are stimulated by 
the contagious enthusiasm of the leading masters of the j)rofessionl 

"Profession," did I say? No. Here is the injustice; here is the 
proof of the marvelous infidelity of our public as yet to the service 
which can hardly be surpassed by any other type. American liberty 
and hopes are based on comprehensive education — mental and 
moral — and we do not yet recognize the teacher's calling as one of 
the "learned professions." There is the degree of M.D., a title of 
respect for every one who enters the ranks of the healers by the 
regular door. Every clergyman has his prefix of "Rev.," which 
floats him sometimes like a cork upon waters where he could not 
swim. "D.D." is conferred, every year, upon many a man who is 
no scholar in Christian history or dogmatics. I have known cases 
where LL.D. has been aflaxed, by prominent colleges, to the names 
of men who could not have told what the two L's, with a period 
after them, were the abbreviation of. But there is no title for teach- 
ers. And I am ignorant of the fact if any University or College has 
yet sought out an eminent, consecrated, thoroughly efficient teacher, 
to confer upon him or her an}' title of honor as an acknowledgment 
of personal service to society, or the rank of the calling to which he 
or she is pledged. 

We must do what we can to repair this injustice — we who know 
the value of the office, the grand proportion of the gifts that are so 
often brought to it, and the nobleness of the sjjirit in which those 
gifts are frequentl}'^ dedicated. 

Let us make this festival time, in the consecration of this building, 
a season in which we pledge ourselves to greater interest in the school 
cause in this city and State. It is not in the structure we are inter- 
ested, so much as in the edifice of education itself, which has been 
erected here by faithful, far-seeing men, against the opposition of 
lazy wealth and skeptical hearts. It is not the porch and hall and 
seats and roof that we are grateful for, so much as the wise manage- 
ment and skilled instruction, which, so successful in the past, are to 
have a better inclosure for their operation in years to come. 

Would that the services of this da}' might be more joyous and 
welcome by the appearance here of the philosophical apparatus that 
is needed by the teachers, and would be in various ways a benefit to 
the community! The $3000 which it would cost ought to be con- 
tributed by the wealth of San Francisco the next week, and would 
be, if we were not still in our public life so blind to the immense 
meaning and value of public education. And let us cherish a deeper 
respect for the office and influence of every good teacher, as we 
recognize here anew the solid truth of a noble American poet's 
words : 

"The riches of the commonwealth 
Are free, strong minds, and hearts of health; 
And more to her than gold or grain, 
The cunning hand and cultured brain. 

She heeds no skeptic's puny hands, 

While near her school the church-spire stands; 

Nor fears the blinded bigot's rule. 

While near her church-spire stands the school." 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 153 



6. MORAL INSTRUCTION.* 



The fervent prayer Tvhicli every parent offers is, that whatever pov- 
erty, destitution, pain or misery, his children may be called upon to 
bear, God will mercifully grant that they may preserve their purity, 
and all be found at last worthy to be reunited in that kingxlom pre- 
pared for the just, beyond the grave. 

The faithful teacher, occupying as he does, for a time, the parent's 
place, must feel a similar anxiety, as he looks round upon those 
placed under his charge. His situation is inferior in responsibility 
only to that of the parent. Indeed, since so many parents neglect 
their duty in this respect, his influence upon those who continue for 
any length of time under his charge, is probably not surpassed by 
that of any other class of men in the community. He must often 
seriously ask what will be the lot of those committed to his trust. 
Could the veil with which Heaven conceals the future be removed, 
would he behold this noble and ingenuous boy, with heart full of 
aspirations after all excellence, still rising higher and higher, or 
would he behold him descend from the lofty heights of honorable 
renown, and become dishonored, degraded, and corrujDt? This 
fair girl, with the light of Heaven in her eye, and its purity sur- 
rounding her as with an atmosphere of holiness, would she be seen 
still the same in her spotlessness and innocence, or would the light 
be extinguished, the glory have departed, and nothing remain but 
the wreck of what was once so lovely and so promising ? 

It is related that an Eastern prince once offered a prize to be given 
to the most beautiful boy in all his dominions. Many were pre- 
sented for the premium, but it was bestowed, by acclamation, upon 
one for his transcendent and angelic loveliness. So beautiful a boy 
had never been seen upon the earth before. Some years after, the 
same prince again offered a prize — but this time it was for the 
ugliest man to be found in all his possessions. Diligent search was 
made; many exhibited themselves to view, of all kinds and degrees 
of ugliness, but among them it was difficult to make a choice, until 
one day there was brought into the royal presence a being, if he 
could be called a man, so hideous, so loathsome, so bestial, that the 
people shuddered while they gazed upon him. Sin had stamped its 
polluting mark upon every feature; from every wrinkle in that hor- 
rible face stared out a vice. Upon inquiry, it was ascertained that 
this frightful and disgusting wretch had been the attractive and 
lovely boy. A life of intemperance, sensuality, and iniquity, had 
made the awful change. God save our pupils from any and all the 
causes tending to produce so terrible an alteration. 

In view of the great responsibility pressing upon every teacher 
to do all in his power to train up his pupils to a life of virtue and 
excellence, I invite your attention to some remarks upon the import- 
ance of Moral Instruction. I have a fear that some few teachers (I 
know they must be very few) may think their duty done if they pre- 
serve good order in the school, and give instruction to their scholars 
in the course of study prescribed. But no teacher, who has an 

*Ilead before the State Teachers' Institute, Sept., 1862. 

10 



154 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

adequate sense of the responsibilities devolving upon him, can 
entertain this opinion. His duty is not performed by merely culti- 
vating the intellect. He must also educate the heart. No j^arent 
would consider any teacher fit for his post, who not only did not 
check even the slightest infringement of morality, but who did not 
endeavor to elevate his whole school to a high standard of moral 
excellence. To think otherwise is a great mistake — and the popular 
notion of education falls in with and confirms this mistake. Talk 
about giving a young man the advantages of education, and the 
thoughts immediately run on what is taught in schools and colleges. 
Speak of giving a young lady a finished education, and almost every 
one wishes to have the seminary pointed out where she can accom- 
plish, in the shortest sj^ace of time, botany, French and Italian, 
music, and drawing, besides a few of the ordinary branches. As 
if what is taught in schools and seminaries were able, of itself, to 
make one either great, or good, or happy. 

The truth is, my friends, that hitherto, all over the world, the cul- 
tivation of the head has been regarded as the princijoal thing, while 
the cultivation of the heart comes in only incidentally. Speak of 
any school, and most probably the conversation will be upon wlio is 
the best scholar in the school. Talk about college, and a cer- 
tain young man is pointed out to you as the first scholar in his class. 
Ten prizes are offered for intellectual, to one for moral excellence. 
The student who can make the best Greek verses, or run through a 
complicated mathematical demonstration, or write the most flowery 
oration, or deliver it in the most eloquent manner, is the recipient 
of the honors, while one, perhaps infinitely his superior in moral 
character, but not possessing his precocity or assurance, is passed 
b}' unnoticed. Now this is surel}^ wrong. The heart is of more im- 
portance than the head. The essence of greatness, always and 
everywhere, is a great spirit. Acquisitions and attainments are not 
the man; they are mere additions to him. Intellectual talents are 
not the man; they are merely the instriLments he uses. The man 
himself is behind them all, and he may use them either for good or 
for evil. The spirit with which a man works, the motives which 
prompt his conduct — these show us and constitute the man, and 
these are moral qualities, springing from and dwelling in the heart. 
The character is the man; the life, in its every particular, which one 
lives, is the man; and what is it that makes life what it is but the 
man's motives, his moral qualities, his heart. Therefore we are told 
that God judgeth the heart; that with the heart man believeth unto 
righteousness; that out of that, and out of that alone, "are the 
issues of life." And, therefore, I repeat, the heart is more than the 
head. 

Sir Walter Scott says: "We shall never learn, and feel, and re- 
spect our real calling and destiny, unless we have taught ourselves 
to consider everything as moonshine, compared with the education 
of the heart." When, after his fruitless journey for health, he had 
returned to Scotland and to Abbotsford, as he was near his end, he 
said to his son-in-law, " Lockhart, I may have but a minute to speak 
with you. My dear, be a good man; be virtuous, be religious; be a 
good man. Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come 
to lie here." 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 155 

" Here was a man," remarks a writer, "who Lad won the highest 
prizes of life; had gained the most splendid literary reputation; had 
been honored, flattered and caressed as few men have ever been; 
and 3^et, at the last moment, falls back for support on moral and re- 
ligious faith — that possession which all may earn." 

Horace Mann, as the shades of death were gathering around him, 
was heard to utter the words, "Grod — man — duty" — and shortly 
after, bidding all near him "Grood night," sank quietly into that 
last, deep sleep, which knows no waking in this world. But who 
that witnessed his j)eaceful and joyful end would not say, with the 
poet, 

' ' That deeper shade shall fade away, 

That deeper sleep shall leave his eyes; 
Thy light shall give eternal day, 
Thy love the rapture of the skies." 

The formation of an honorable, upright, Christian character, is 
the great business, the great success of life. This must be done, or 
nothing is accomplished. Do this first; do this at any rate; do this 
even if everything else is left undone; though that sacrifice is not 
required of us. What parent would not prefer his child should 
leave school with good j)rinciples, well settled, his heart in the right 
place, even though he might be deficient in knowledge, to seeing him 
adorned with all the accomplishments taught in the schools, if, at 
the same time, he fears that he is compelled to distrust the sound- 
ness of his moral character ? What man or woman does not demand 
of his friend that he shall ^7's^ be true, sincere, heart ij, whether pos- 
sessed or not of any remarkable intellectual penetration or sagacity? 

Now, I am not decrying intellectual attainments — I value them 
highly — but I am only placing them on their true level, namely, be- 
low moral attainments. It is a matter of great importance that the 
pupils in our schools should be well instructed in the branches taught 
in them; and any teacher who succeeds in so doing has accomplished 
a great good. But it is of the highest consequence, it is absolutely 
necessary, that we should all become good men and good women. 
For that purpose, infinitely above all others, we were sent into the 
world. For that purpose, the world and all that belongs to it were 
created. For that purpose, the sun shines upon man, the winds in- 
invigorate his blood, the rains descend upon his fields, society sui*- 
rounds him with its blessings, and wife and children warm his heart 
and strengthen his arm to action. For this purpose, above all 
others, the school-house, as well as the house of God, was reared. 

I see no proper use of language in those who speak of the godlike 
intellect of such a man, or of another as having a gigantic under- 
standing. We have all heard the observation, "Sir, he is the most 
remarkable man in America." You may be certain that man is not 
remarkable for moral qualities. A godlike, a gigantic intellect as- 
cribed to a mere creature of an hour! When the more we know 
only shows us the immensit;,' of our ignorance. How true it is, also, 
that purely great intellectual achievements cannot be understood by 
the great majority of mankind! I suppose there are not one thou- 
sand persons in the world that can go through the steps of the 
reasoning by whi<;h Leverrier proved the existence of the new planet, 



156 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

and determined its position. But the triumphs of goodness are at- 
once felt and acknowledged by all. We are through them made 
personally acquainted with the individuals by whom they are accom- 
plished. Howard and Florence Nightingale are household words. 
Every deed of true heroism, of self-sacrifice, of devoted patriotism,, 
of love to brother man, thrills the heart of the world. The heart is- 
quicker, and keener, and truer in insight than the head. 

" One touch of goodness makes the whole world kin." 

The best eulogy ever pronounced upon George Washington -was 
that which declared him to be first in the hearts of his countrymen. 

I do not intend to go into detail upon the best methods of impart- 
ing moral instruction to the young. Here again the heart is of more 
worth than the head. Every teacher who really and earnestly feeli* 
the importance of this work, Avill instinctively^ select and adopt the 
best methods. One thing, however, may be said — that moral instruc- 
tion cannot commence too early. Its essence lies in training chil- 
dren to do right; and they understand the difference between right 
and wrong even before they can talk. An essayist — commenting on 
the fact that sometimes a man, characterized by genuine piety during 
early and late manhood and into old age, has, when he fell into sec- 
ond childhood, broken out into profanity, and manifested evil habits 
that surprised, if not shocked his friends — says that second child- 
hood is but a repetition of first childhood, and that the follies, bad 
habits, and vices, which were allowed to pass unchecked in child- 
hood, will be likely to reappear in dotage. If this is so, it shows us 
of what great importance is careful and judicious moral instruction 
in early life. The lessons then received are never entirely obliter- 
ated. It is in the morning of life that the seeds of good principles 
must be planted. Do not be disappointed if you do not meet with 
immediate or speedy good results. Think how slowly the world is 
improving. A higher morality, even more than a higher intelli- 
gence, is frequently a plant of slow growth. I suppose there is 
nothing which makes a greater demand upon the parent's or teach- 
er's patience than the slowness with which a wayward and obstinate 
child improves. 

Sometimes, perhaps for years, the course appears to be all down 
hill. But persevere; still exercise love, patience, and hope. Years 
after, when the child has long since left your care, when the good 
seed which you sowed seems to have been lost forever, and the 
ground choked up with rank and noxious weeds, a tempest of afflic- 
tion may rush over the place and sweep off the brambles and thistles, 
and then may appear, "first the blade, then the ear, then the full 
corn in the ear," until the fields are white with an abundant harvest, 
fit to be gathered into the granary of the Lord. 

Moral instruction is not to be conveyed to the young by preach- 
ing or lecturing. It is a work to be performed. "Train up a child 
in the way he should go," says the Good Book. The teacher must 
be diligent in seeing that the child acquires good habits — habits of 
obedience, order, punctuality, method, neatness, studiousuess, gen- 
tleness, courtesy, respect for elders, reverence for the law, and a 
love and devotion for his country, which knows not and never can 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 157 

linow "a shadow of turning." Teach him to check the first symp- 
toms of en\j, jealonsj', cruelty, arrogance; to be honest in word 
and deed; to think the truth, to sjieak the truth, to act the truth, 
and to shrink from using a profane word as he would from touching 
his tongue to red-hot iron. Show him that the brave man never 
brags; that true courage is in daring to do right; that the man of 
high and noble spirit will forgive an injury rather than avenge it, 
because he infinitely jDrefers to suffer rather than to do wrong. And 
finally, impress him with the conviction that the greatest victory is 
not over one's enemies, but over one's self; that the sight upon 
which Heaven smiles is that of the good man relieving and comfort- 
ing his fellow-man in distress; and that "the fear of God is the 
beginning of wisdom." ******* 

I have said that the influence of the faithful teacher is not sur- 
passed by that of any other class in the community. Listen to 
Martin Luther's \yords: 

" The diligent and pious teacher, who properly instructeth and 
traiueth the young, can never be fully rewarded with mone3\ If I 
were to leave my office as preacher, I would next choose that of 
schoolmaster, or teacher, for I know that, next to preaching, this is 
the greatest, best, and most useful vocation; and I am not quite sure 
which of the two is the better; for it is hard to reform old sinners, 
with whom the preacher has to do, while the young tree can be 
made to bend without breaking." 

A distinguished educator remarks: 

"Next in rank and efficacy to that pure and holy source of moral 
influence, the mother, is that of the schoolmaster. It is powerful 
already. What would it be if, in every one of those school districts 
which we now count by annually-increasing thousands, there was to 
be found a teacher well-informed, without pedantry; religious, 
without bigotry; proud and fond of his profession, and honored in 
the discharge of its duties? How wide would be the intellectual, 
the moral influence of such a bod}'^ of men?" 

This is the opinion of every enlightened man upon the nature of 
the teacher's office. Let us endeavor to justify it in every particu- 
lai-, and then we shall elevate our vocation to the true position which 
it ought to occupy. 

In the remarks I have made upon the propriety and necessity of 
moral instruction, based upon our duty to God, I do not mean that 
there should be any formality, any affected sanctity, or any j^reten- 
sious to superior holiness on the part of the teacher. God forbid. I 
would have him as pleasant, and cheerful, and honest, as a summer's 
day. I would not have the moral lessons occupy too much time, or 
crowd out the other indisjDensable studies of the school. But I 
would have them receive all the share of attention which their im- 
portance demands. The judicious teacher will avail himself of the 
favorable moment for making the right impression upon the minds 
of his scholars. 

I am conscious that I have very imperfectly presented this subject to 
your consideration. But I do not exaggerate its importance. If I 
have said anything which is true, anything which really bears upon 
the most important question which can be submitted to any human 



158 INSTITUTE ADDEESSES. 

being, I urge and entreat you to give it careful thought, to allow it 
all the weight to which it is fairly entitled. So shall your influence 
never be lost, but go on, extending and widening. No sincere effort 
to promote the good of others can be wholly ineffectual. I remem- 
ber the kindly tones, the pleasant face, the aff"ectionate warning, and 
the cheering words of encouragement of a teacher under whose care 
I was placed when a small boy. The influence which he exerted 
upon me will, I think, be felt forever; and it is an influence alwaj's 
leading to right. I shall never forget him. How often do I see 
him in imagination ! He is living at the present time, and if he knew 
that I have been thinking and speaking of him to-day to an audience 
of teachers uj^on the distant Pacific coast, his first emotion would be 
that of surprise that I still think of him after the lapse of so many 
years; the second would be a thrill of joyful gratitude to God that 
his counsels had made so deep an impression upon the minds of hi» 
scholars, that he had been remembered with esteem and affection. 

May our eff"orts be such in relation to all who may be entrusted to 
our care that hereafter, wherever the lot of our pupils may be cast 
upon the broad earth, they may look back upon the school-house 
which they attended, as the place where they received, besides all 
useful learning, a love for all that is good, pure, and honorable, 
which has never left them, but exerts an abiding influence on their 
characters. So shall your memory be ever kept green in their 
hearts; so shall your faithful efforts be blessed in their lives. 



PHYSICAL TRAINING.* 

Intellectual training being the main object of the public schools^, 
it is not surprising that the body has too often been remorselessly 
sacrificed to the brain. 

The neglect of physical culture having produced a long train of 
evils, too serious to be longer evaded by the most stubborn conserva- 
tives, the result is, that systematic physical training is beginning to 
be recognized as a duty in the jDublic schools of the United States.- 

In some schools, gymnastic and calisthenic exercises form a pari 
of the daily drill of j)upils, quite as regularly as the mental exer- 
cises in arithmetic and grammar. In some colleges, muscular train- 
ing in the gymnasium is insisted on quite as strenuously as a 
knowledge of the classics. They are using their gymnasiums to 
build up stout bodies, as well as strong minds. A four years' war 
taught the nation to place a higher value on physical manhood. In 
many public schools, the elements of military drill have been intro- 
duced, and, under the stimulus of the war spirit, successfully car- 
ried into eff'ect. But the first great requisites for good soldiers, 
before which all others sink into insignificance, are sound health, 
activity, and power of endurance. The rawest recruits can be 
taught to handle a musket in a few weeks, but muscles of iron and 
sinews of steel cannot be fastened upon men like knapsacks. The 
Greek and Eoman veterans were trained from boyhood, by gymnastic 

*Fiist Bieunial Eeport, 18(55. 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 159 

exercises, and athletic games and sports. To lay a solid foundation 
for onr own military strength as a nation, we must begin with the 
three millions of boys in our public schools; and, while we breathe 
into their hearts the spirit of patriotism, we must train them to a 
muscular power which will give us fit soldiers to fight and win the 
battles of the republic. Ten years of boj'-life in schools where 
regular gymnastic drill is followed, up, and where a fondness for all 
athletic games and sports is cultivated, will make a good foundation 
for military drill. 

Physical training is important as an efficient aid to mental culture. 
It comes into school as an amusement, a relaxation from the hard 
work of mental application. School amusements are a necessity of 
childhood. One of the greatest defects of our schools, is their 
failure to recognize the laws of animal life. 

In Germany and Prussia, the children are trained in the schools 
to gymnastic and athletic exercises; and the result is a national trait 
of fondness for out-of-door life. English schools are noted for 
rough-and-tumble games, foot-ball, cricket, leaping, running, wrest- 
ling, rowing, boxing, and fencing. Pluck is a national trait of 
English school-boys, and of English men. 

Amusement, in all nations and among all people, in some form, 
comes in to lighten the burden of toil. Labor is a means, not an 
end; and the true end of life, usefulness and happiness, lies in the 
golden mean, the alternation of labor, rest, and amusement. 

When the only standing recreation of the American people is busi- 
ness, and their lighter amusements billiards and the ball-room, we 
have little reason to expect great fondness for sports in schools. 
This distaste for fun and frolic comes down to us as a natural inherit- 
ance. The grave old Puritans, who settled New England, and laid 
in granite the foundation of the nation, had too much hard work to 
do in clearing farms and hunting Indians, to think much of amuse- 
ments. They brought with them, too, something of the old Round- 
head antipathy to May-poles, dancing, and theatres. 

Whatever may be the reason, it is certain that the Americans, as 
a people, have little fondness for athletic games and out-of-door 
sports, without which it is hard to keep the muscular system in good 
condition. 

The ancient Greeks carried to the highest perfection the cultiva- 
tion of the intellect and the training of the body. Their Olympic 
games, their athletic exercises, their school discipline, their military 
drill, secured the highest possible degree of physical perfection. 
Their poets, orators,. philosophers, painters, sculptors, and histo- 
rians, were good fighters. Alcibiades, the sybarite, the fop, the 
reveler, could live on black broth, and rough it in the camp with the 
hardiest of the common soldiers. 

Socrates was a soldier as well as a philosopher, and would 
have been less respected had he wanted the attributes common to 
all citizen soldiers — strength, courage, and endurance. 

When, in Greece, a luxurious civilization corrupted the tastes of 
the citizens, and reduced them to effeminacy, the rude barbarian 
claimed the land, and won it. 

Their severe gymnastic training, it is true, had for its primary ob- 



160 



INSTITUTE 'ADDEESSES. 



ject the perfection of military discipline; but it also produced clear 
heads, strong minds, and the perfect forms which still live in marble. 

Its influence was felt in literature, to which it gave a healthy cast. 
It gave to the nation its immortal sculptors and painters. 

It is in the power of the public schools to educate the nation to a 
more healthful taste for simple amusements, and to raise the stand- 
ard of manly strength and womanly beauty. 

But apart from this, the highest degree of mental culture cannot 
be attained in violation of the laws of physical life. Childhood is 
the season or growth, of animal development. It is a mistaken no- 
tion that children are born into the world for the purpose of going 
to school to learn to read and write. Playfulness is, with them, as 
much an instinct as with kittens. Even in the long, dark winters of 
the arctic zone, where nature in her savage forms almost freezes out 
the life of man, Dr. Kane found the stunted little Esquimaux boys 
playing their games of ball on the snow-banks. Let the children in 
school have amusements in the form of healthful, muscular exer- 
cises. It is absolutely joainful to think how most of our primary 
schools sin against the laws of nature; how they cramp the little 
bodies, and repress childish emotions and impulses. 

Education is the harmonious development of all the faculties of 
the human mind, and the training of the human body to its great- 
est strength and highest beauty. Why, then, in our public schools, 
should not physical training be considered, as well as mental 
development? 

It is evident to all who are in the least familiar with the daily 
routine of our schools, that the muscular natures of the children 
are as little regarded as if they were made of gutta percha. Now, 
I do not suppose that many children are killed outright by the high 
pressure of mental training. Occasionally some nervous boy, bril- 
liant and ambitious, his vitality all running to brain instead of body, 
drops out of school into his grave, and his death is attributed to 
Providence instead of mathematics. But thousands of boys leave 
school, thin, pale, and weak, or bungling, clumsy, and awkward, 
when they might as well have left it strong, active, and graceful. 

It is not so much the positive harm which the schools inflict of 
which we complain, but their neglect to accomplish positive good. 
It might be hard to prove, in court, that delicate girls, of fine nerv- 
ous organizations, have been killed outright by long lessons, over- 
stimulated ambition, late study hours, and mathematical puzzles; 
yet all teachers very well know that brain fevers have taken off many 
promising young girls, and that many more leave school with diplo- 
mas and ruined constitutions. All the girls in public schools have 
neither crooked spines, round shoulders, sunken chests, nor pale 
faces; but how much more perfect might be their physical develop- 
ment, did their health receive half the attention devoted to music, 
drawing, and mathematics. Can any mental culture be of greater 
importance than the health of those who are to become the mothers 
of the next generation of men? Few girls who are educated in the 
public schools escape the universal law of labor. Most of them, 
when they enter homes of their own at an early age, will need 
strength as well as accomplishments. Many of them must do their 



INSTITUTE ADDEESSES. 161 

own housework, in addition to the care of children; and is the ques- 
tion of physical strength of no consequence to them? Is it of little 
consequence to the laboring man, with a famil}^ to support, whether 
his wife be strong or feeble, well or sick? 

The strong boys, in the long run, come out ahead. AVhen an ox 
is let into a pasture full of cattle, there is a trial of horns, and the 
strongest takes the lead. So with the boys of a public school. The 
strong, the energetic, the active, are the real kings of school, whether 
they are at the head or foot of the arithmetic class. Give the boy, 
then, the exercise his nature craves, and which will make him a live 
boy and a manly man. If he leaves school with a fondness for ath- 
letic amusements, he has one of the surest safeguards against ex- 
pensive and ruinous dissipation: 

A judicious union of social, mental, and physical culture, will 
make our public schools practically adapted to the wants of the peo- 
ple. If parents, through ignorance, neglect the proper training of 
their children, let the public school take charge of them. Amuse- 
ments form a part of education, and much excellent gymnastic and 
calisthenic training maybe connected with games, or made delight- 
ful by music. 

But some will say, leave children to follow their own inclination 
in plays and sports; it is not natural for boys to climb the ropes and 
ladders of a gymnasium, to swing clubs, lift weights, and revolve on 
bars; nor is it desirable that young ladies use wands, swing dumb 
bells, and romp in the play-ground. Any attempt at systematic and 
repeated drill will prove irksome, and therefore useless. 

Then why not leave the mind to its natural, untrained action ? 
Why submit the brain to regular training? Children's brains are as 
active as their bodies; why not leave both alike to the ill-regulated 
laws of impulse and feeling ? In mental culture we recognize the 
great law of nature, that no perfection is attained without repeated 
and systematic effort. Mental gymnastics of the severest kind are 
rigidly practised during at least ten years of early life. Strength, 
readiness, and quickness are the result. Leave the mind to its own 
aimless action, and its strength all runs to waste. 

The same law applies to the muscular system; yet we leave the 
boy in school, day after day, year after year, cramped over his desk, 
his muscles weak and relaxed, and his nervous energy, diverted from 
his growth, to be poured on an already overworked brain. If he 
have unusual stamina, he comes out in tolerable health, but clumsy 
and bungling; if of a nervous temperament, he leaves school pre- 
cociously sharp and quick, but thin, pale, and weak. 

Take a class of boys and subject them, from the age of six years 
to fifteen, to a careful and judicious daily exercise of an hour in 
such gymnastics as are best adapted to the growing body, and will 
not their physique be vastly superior to that of a class left to run 
-wild in the yard ? And would not such an additional stock of ani- 
mal vigor and strength stand them in quite as good stead in the 
world as their limited store of school-book learning? The gradu- 
ates of West Point can be singled out of a crowd by their straight 
forms, erect walk, general quickness of movement, and superior 
physical development. On a small scale, why cannot the elementary 



162 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

schools reach the same results? Any business man knows that 
sound health and power of endurance are quite as necessary to suc- 
cess as quickness in mathematics, or skill in the use of language. 
What merchant would not rather have his son come to the count- 
ing-room with every muscle strung to its highest tension, quick, 
active, self-reliant, strong, and proud of his strength, even if he 
knows a few pages less of a few books, than to see him drag home a thin 
face and attenuated muscles? Do not mechanics and laborers think 
it of some importance that their sons, who will take their places and 
live by manual labor, shall have sinewy frames, as well as intelligent 
minds? By far the greater number of boys who attend the public 
schools grow up Avorking men. To all such, power of endurance is 
the most practical education. The arm to lift a fifty-pound dumb 
bell is better than the analysis of cube root. 

A sound body is the only capital they have to start with in life. 
Knowledge may be power, but muscular strength is food and cloth- 
ing. Some men must earn their living by muscular labor, as well as 
others by their wits. Horace Mann said, and he knew the truth of 
it, "All through the life of a jjure-minded but feeble-bodied man, 
his path is lined with memory's grave-stones, which mark the spots 
where noble enterprises perished for want of physical vigor to em- 
body them in deeds." 

Sound health is a necessary condition of all permanent success, 
and the greatest drawback to our j)ublic school system is the neg- 
lect to provide for this necessity. Better illiterate strength than 
sickly erudition. It is true that sometimes a heroic spirit conquers 
physical weakness, but such cases are exceptions. Dr. Kane braved 
the- terrors of the arctic regions, and endured more than many phys- 
ical giants, but died in Cuba. Nature had her revenge. 

Manj^ teachers will say, that is all very fine theoretically, but it is 
utterly impossible to carry it out practically in the school. Yet, it 
can be done, has been done, and is done in a great many public 
schools. 

Connected for a period of ten years with a public school of five 
hundred children, during five years of that time gymnastic and cal- 
isthenic training was made a part of daily education, just as much 
as arithmetic, or geography, or grammar, and with quite as satis- 
factory results. Having practiced all that I recommend, I am 
troubled with no doubts in urging the j^racticability of physical' cul- 
ture in the public schools. True, it was rather hard in the begin- 
ning, to be blamed for innovations, laughed at by conservatives, and 
found fault with by parents. But persistence and patience over- 
came all obstacles. Mothers who at first objected to letting their 
boys exercise in the gymnasium, for fear they would break their 
necks or tear their clothes, soon grew proud of the strength and 
agility of their sons. 

Delicate girls, who horrified their mammas with accounts of wands 
and dumb-bells, grew to like both, as they grew stronger under daily 
drill. Pale, weakly, good-for-nothing boys, who at first only moped 
around the yard and looked at the other boys, soon became inter- 
ested and took hold in earnest, until the narrow chest expanded, 
the round shoulders straightened, and the soft, flabby arm became 
like knotted whip-cords. 



I 



INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 1C3 

The measurements of many boys' arms showed an increase o: cir- 
cumference of one inch in three months, and an expansion of the 
chest of two inches in the same time. Some of my most pleasant 
memories of teaching are connected with my gymnastic classes of ath- 
letic boys, who could kick foot-ball, play base-ball, lift dumb-bells, 
swing clubs, climb ladders, vault the bar, Avalk the joarallel, sv ing 
on the rings, foot it twenty miles on Saturday excursions, and box 
and wrestle with their teacher. I would not give those boys, who 
have since grown up to be rugged men, rejoicing in their health and 
streugth, for all the arithmetical prodigies in the United States. As 
I feel the hearty grip of their hands, my only twinge of 2:)ain is, that 
when I went to school my teachers did not have a higher estimate of 
muscle, and a lower one of books. 

One of those " big boys" of my class has been several years the 
leading gymnast of the Olympic Club Gymnasium of the young 
men of this city, and I am quite as proud of him as of another boy 
who has grown to be a scholar. Another strapping fellow, six feet 
two, straight as an arrow, and strong as Hercules, who has been 
two years in the army, fighting Indians, is a walking illustration of 
the benefits of gymnastic drill in a jDublic school. I would not thus 
allude to my own experience, excej^t that any reference to gymnas- 
tics is met by many teachers with one argument, condensed in a 
single word — impracticable. 

How shall such exercises be conducted in a public school? The 
excellent books on the subject render it unnecessary to go into de- 
tail. All children have arms, and the will to use them. With or 
without music, any teacher in any school, graded or ungraded, can 
give ten minutes a day for free arm movements. A few dollars will 
buy a set of wands, and some wooden dumb-bells; and the girls can 
make two dozen " bean bags." With this simple apparatus alone, 
any teacher with an ordinary amount of ingenuity, tact, or skill, 
can, with the aid of a book, have a good light gymnastic class. 

Half an hour a day can be taken out of the school hours, and the 
children be all the better for losing so much study time. A vast 
amount of training can be given, even in the short period of a year. 
The time for study and recitation ought to be reduced. In years to 
come, little children will not be confined in school more than three 
hours a day. Years ago, the good old-time clergymen preached ser- 
mons two hours long, and those who could not stand them patiently 
were held to be weak in the faith. Better sermons are now deliv- 
ered in thirty minutes, with quite as good results. So it will be 
with schools. Better teachers than we, when the j)resent six-hour 
system shall have become obsolete, will teach more in half the time. 
Not length of time in study, but the quality of thought, and the 
force of action, is the measure of mental progress. 

The light gymnastics are good for the smaller boys and girls; but 
the "big boys" will generally prefer some out-of-door exercises. 
The movable horizontal bar is a great favorite with boys, and the 
exercises on it are among the best of the gymnasium. One can be 
set in any school-yard for twenty dollars. A few iron dumb bells 
will be useful. The Indian clubs are excellent for the arms and 
chest, but boys do not generally " take, to them," The swinging 



164 INSTITUTE ADDRESSES. 

rings cost but little, and are liked very much. Leaping is a pleas- 
ant yard amusement, and requires only two sticks and a string. 
Football is a rough and tumble game; but it has the charm of in- 
tense excitement, and the more the boys get of it the better. 
Bru'sed ankles and sore legs are forgotten in the exultation of win- 
ning. Rugb}' ought not to monopolize it. Base ball is a fine old 
gam*;, which ought always to be kept before the boys. An occa- 
sional Saturday pedestrian excursion of twenty miles is a fine thing 
if the teacher can stand it. I was reminded of one the other day 
by a strapping fellow, w4io exclaimed: " It made my legs ache, but 
how nice the beefsteaks were that we broiled on sticks over the 
fire." A set of boxing gloves will make fine fun for the older boys, 
and yet give them the most vigorous kind of exercise. " Do you 
box any nowadays," was one of the first salutations of one of my 
" boys," who has just returned from the army. He was thinking 
of the half hours after school with the boxing gloves, in the old 
schoolhouse, and how, wdth the aid of what he had learned there, 
he whipped the eyes out of a big " bully" at the West Point Mili- 
tary Academy. Wrestling used to be a favorite amusement, and 
what New England boy does not remember many a hard tussle on 
the green sward round the " old schoolhouse." 

Teachers who wish to succeed in physical training must study 
variety in their exercises. Boys are fond of novelty and change, 
and the same routine day after day will soon tire. Marbles, tops, 
kites, and ball follow after one another, changing quite as often as 
the moon. It requires more skill, tact, judgment, and knowledge 
of boy nature to succeed Avith a gymnastic class than to teach arith- 
metic or grammar; one requires a soul and symjDathy with boy 
nature, the other does not. An owl should not mingle with sing- 
ing birds; and a cold, formal, dignified, melancholy teacher has no 
business in the boys' plaj'ground. If he cannot kick a foot-ball 
well, the boys will laugh at him. 

Every teacher needs gymnastic exercises and amusements. No 
occupations so drains the nervous power; he must find the "foun- 
tain of youth" in the sports of boyhood. What matters it if exam- 
inations are a little less " brilliant," children less precocious, and 
" school phenomenons" less common? The object of school is to 
train up children to be sensible men and women, and to form tastes 
and habits which shall follow them through life. 

The indirect lessons of the play-ground are often more valuable 
than the formal teachings of the class-room, and the kind words 
there spoken will soften the necessary severity of discipline in a 
public school. In the hours of play, when " off duty," the teacher 
with a great heart can win the souls of children while training their 
"bodies. What teacher would not be remembered by his pupils as 
a sharer of their sports, a sympathizer with their boyish amuse- 
ments, as a living man who had a heart, and moulded their charac- 
ter, and formed their tastes, rather than as a mere schoolmaster 
who only expounded text-books ! 



UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 165 



III. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 



In 1866, Hon. Wm. Holdeu iutroduced a bill to organize a 
State Agricultural Scliool, in order to secure the 150,000 acres 
of land granted by Congress for that purpose. The bill became 
a law, but no action was taken nnder it; and in 1868, Hon. John 
W. ^Dwinelle drafted and introduced a bill, which was passed, 
providing for a State University Avith an Agricultural College. 

The University of California was opened in Oakland, in the 
College of California buildings, Sept. 23, 1869, with an attend- 
ance of about 50 students. 

The University was made free, and opened for the admission 
of 3'oung men and women. 

The first Board of Eegents was composed as follows : 

EX-OFFICIO BEGENTS. 

H. H. Haight Governor. 

Wm. Holden Lieutenant-Governor. 

O. P. Fitzgerald State Supt. Public Insiruction. 

C. T. Ryland Speaker of the Assembly. 

Chas. F. Reed President State Agricultural Society. 

A. S. Hallidie ■ - President Mechanics' Institute. 



Samuel Merritt 2 years 

R. P. Hammond 6 years 

Horatio Stebbins 10 years 

Wm. Watt 14 years 



APPOINTED BY THE GOYEENOE. 

John T. Doyle 4 years. 

John W. Dwinelle 8 years. 

Lawrence Archer 12 years. 

S. B. McKee 16 years. 



Isaac Friedlander. ... 2 years. 

J. Mora Moss 6 years. 

A. J. Moulder 10 years. 

F. F. Low 14 years. 



ELECTED BY THE BOAED. 

Edward Tompkins 4 years. 

S. F. Butterworth 8 years. 

A. J. Bowie 12 years. 

John B. Felton 16 years. 



Andrew J. Moulder, having been elected Secretary, resigned 
his position as Regent. 

The College of California, incorporated in 1855, disincorpo- 
rated, and conveyed its grounds at Berkeley, 5 miles from Oak- 
land, as a site for the State University. 

The men chiefly instrumental in this consolidation, were 
Henry Durant, Gov. F. F. Low, and Horatio Stebbins. 



166 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 

The Collego of California had its germ in a private school, 
established in Oakland in 1853, by Henry Durant. 

FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY. 

Ou the lOtli of November, 1868, the Eegents elected General 
Geo. B. McClellan, President, with a salary of $6000. He de- 
clined, and Prof. John LeConte was made "Acting President." 

In 1869, the following Professors were appointed : 
Joseph LeConte. ...Prof, of Geology, Natural History, and Botany. 

John LeConte Prof, of Physics and Industrial Mechanics. 

Martin Kellogg Prof, of Ancient Languages. 

R. C. Fisher Prof, of Chemistry, Mining, and Metallurgy. 

W. T. Welcker Prof, of Mathematics. 

Frank Soule, Jr Ass't Prof, of Mathematics. 

Paul Pioda Prof, of Modern Languages. 

Ezra S. Carr Prof, of Agriculture, Agricultural Chemistry, and 

Horticulture. 

\Vm. Swinton Prof, of English Language and Literature, 

History, Rhetoric, and Logic. 

Henry Durant was elected President in 1870. In 1872, he 
resigned, and D. 0. Gilman was elected, Sept. 1st. President 
Gilman resigned in March, 1875, and was succeeded by Prof. 
John LeConte, as "Acting President." In June, 1876, Prof. 
John LeConte was elected President. 

The Legislature of 1870 appropriated $300,000 for building 
purposes, and in the Autumn of 1873, the buildings being com- 
pleted, the University was removed from Oakland to the perma- 
nent site at Berkeley. 

The resignation of Prof. Fisher was requested by the Regents 
in '71, and the chair of Chemistr}' was filled by Prof. Rising. 
In 1874, the resignation of Prof. Carr was requested by the 
Regents. He demanded an investigation, whicli was refused, and 
his chair was declared vacant. He was nominated and elected 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, in 1876. 

In 1874, Prof. Swinton resigned his professorship to go East, 
and E. R. Sill was elected to his place. 

During the same "^year, Fred. G. Hesse was elected to the 
Chair of Industrial Mechanics; John D. Hoffman, Prof, of In- 
dustrial Drawing; Wm. Ashburner, Prof, of Mining Engineer- 
ing; E. W. Hilgard, Prof, of Agriculture; George F. Becker, 
Instructor in Metallurgy. 

A. J. Moulder resigned, and R. E. C. Stearns was elected 
: Secretary. 



UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 



167 



The Eegents and the Faculty, 1876, are as follows: 

EX-OFFICIO REGENTS. 

"William Irwin Governor, ex-officio President of the Board. 

-J. A. Johnson Lieutenant-Governor. 

Hon. G. J. Carpenter Speaker of the Assembly. 

Hon. Ezra S. Carr State Superintendent Public Instruction, 

R. S. Carey, Esq President State Agricultural Society. 

A. S. Hallidie, Esq. . . .Pres. Mechanics' Institute of San Francisco. 
John LeConte President of the Universit}-. 

APPOINTED EEGENTS. 



Eev. H. Stebbins, San Francisco. 

Hon. L. Archer San Jose. 

J. West Martin Oakland. 

Hon. Samuel B. McKee, Oakland. 
Hon. J. F. Swift, San Francisco. 
Joseph Winans . . . San Francisco. 

J. Mora Moss Oakland. 

J. M. Hamilton >. Guenoc. 



D.O.Mills Millbrae. 

William Meek. . . .San Leandro. 
Hon. F. M. Pixley, San Francisco. 
Hon.W. T. Wallace, San Fran'co. 
Hon. E. Casserl}^ . . San Francisco. 
Hon. J. S. Hager, San Francisco. 

A. J. Bowie San Francisco. 

Hon. John B. Felton. . .Oakland. 



ACADEMIC SENATE. 

John LeConte, M.D. . . .Pres. and Prof, of Physics and Mechanics. 

William Ashburner Prof, of Mining. 

Geo. W. Bunnell, A.M. . . .Prof, of Greek Language and Literature. 
Geo. Davidson, A.M. .Non-ResidentProf. Geodesy and Astronomy. 

Stephen J. Field, LL.D . ..Non-Resident Prof, of Law. 

Frederick G. Hesse Prof, of Industrial Mechanics. 

E. W. Hilgard, Ph.D . . Prof. Agriculture and Agricultural Chemistry. 

Martin Kellogg, A.M Dean, and Prof, of Ancient Languages. 

Joseph LeConte, M.D Prof, of Geology and Natural History. 

Bernard Moses, Ph.D Prof, of History. 

Paul Pioda Prof, of Modern Languages. 

WillardB. Rising, Ph.D Prof, of Chemistry and Metallurgy. 

Edward R. Sill, A.M. . . .Prof, of English Language and Literature. 

Frank Soule, Jr Prof, of Civil Engineering and Astronomy. 

William T. AVelcker Prof, of Mathematics. 

W. A. Barbour, A.B Instructor in Chemistry. 

Geo. F. Becker, A.B., Ph.D Lecturer ou« Metallurgy. 

Samuel R. Christy, Ph.D. , Instructor in Chemistry. 

G. C.Edwards, Ph.B. .Inst'r in' Mathematics, and Com. of Cadets. 

Carlos F. Gompertz Instructor in Spanish. 

L. L. Hawkins, Ph.B.. . .Instructor in Mathematics and Surveying. 

John D. Hoffman Instructor in Mechanical Drawing. 

Henry B. Jones Assistant Instructor in German. 

G. de Kersaint-Gily Instructor in French. 

Robert E. Ogilby Instructor in Free-hand Drawing. 

Edward A. Parker, Ph.B Instructor in Physics and Mechanics. 

Jas. M. Phillips, A.B. ..Instructor in Hebrew and Ancient History. 

Albin Putzker Instructor in Germuu. 

Ambrose C. Richardson, A.B Instructor in Latin and Greek. 

Joseph C. Rowell, A.B Librarian. 

E. H. Sears, A.B Instructor in Latin and Greek. 

F. Slate, Jr., S.B Instructor in Chemistry. 



168 UNIVERSITY OP CALIFORNIA. 

GEADUATE ASSISTANTS. 

John W. Bice, Ph.B College of Engineering-. 

Isaac T. Hinton, Ph.B Matliematics. 

Wm. Carey Jones, A.B Kecorder of Faculty. 

Franklin P. McLean, Ph.G Chemistry. 

Frank S, Sutton, Ph.B College of Agriculture. 

STUDENT ASSISTANTS. 

Fred. L. Button Mathematics. 

J. B. Clarke Mathematics . 

X. Y. Clark Natural History and Greology. 

NUMBER OF STUDENTS. 

The number of students from 1870 to 1876 is as follows: 40, 
78, 153, 185, 191, 234. 

ENDOWMENT. 

The 150,000 acres of land granted by Congress for the sup- 
port of, an Agricultural College have been sold, or applied for, 
at an average price of $5 per acre. If paid up, there Avould 
be a fund of $750,000, which, at six per cent., w^ould yield an 
annual revenue of $45,000. But in selling these lands, only 20 
per cent., or $1 an acre, is required in cash, the remainder 
draws interest at the rate of ten per cent. ; so that the income 
ought to exceed 150,000, or even $60,000. 

In addition to this endowment, the State has given from the 
sale of tide lands an endowment fund sufficient to yield an 
annual income of $50,000— about $800,000, invested in State 
bonds. The endowment fund of the University may be set 
down, in round numbers, at $1,500,000, and its annual income 
at $128,000. 




^\ 






\%\ 



STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 169 



IV. STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 



Uuder the appropriation of $3,000, by the Legislature of 
1861-2, Ahira Holmes was appointed as Principal by a Board 
of Trustees, consisting of Superintendent Moulder, George 
Tait, Superintendent of San Francisco, and Dr. Taylor, Super- 
intendent of Sacramento. 

The school was opened in one of the vacant rooms of the 
San Francisco High School, July 21st, 1862, with 34 pupils, 
during the first term. The school was soon removed to rented 
rooms on Post Street. Henry P. Carlton was elected Vice- 
Principal, and Miss Helen M. Clark and Miss Kate Sullivan 
teachers in the Training School. 

The first graduating class, December, 1863, consisted of 
Bertha Comstock, Augusta P. Fink, Nellie Hart, and Louisa 
Mails. 

In July, 1861, Miss E. W. Houghton was elected as an Assist- 
ant, and in July, 1865, George W. Minns succeeded Ahira 
Holmes as Principal. The school was removed to the rear of 
the Lincoln Grammar School, and Mrs. C. H. Stout was ap- 
pointed Principal of the Training School. 

The number of pupils, October, 1865, was 86. The School 
Law of 1865-5 made the State Board of Education ex officio a 
Board of Normal School Trustees. 

At the first meeting, April 13, 1866, Professor Minns was 
granted a year's leave of absence, and H. P. Carlton elected 
Acting Principal. In 1867, Mr. Minns, concluding not to re- 
turn from the East, resigned. Mr. Carlton continued Principal 
until July, 1867, when George Tait was elected Principal. Mr. 
Tait resigned in 1868, and was succeeded by W. T. Luckey. 

Under the Act of April 4, 1870, Gov. Haight appointed a 
Board of Trustees, consisting of James Deuman, J. H. Braly, 
C. T. Eyland, H. O. Weller, and A. J. Moulder, the Governor 
and State Superintendent being ex officio members. 

11 



170 



STATE BOARDS OF EDUCATION. 



This Board proceeded to erect a building at San Jose, com- 
pleted in 1872, at a cost of 1250,000. 

In June, 1873, Charles H. Allen was elected Principal, vice 
W. T. Luckey, and J. H. Braly, Vice-Principal, vice H, P. 
Carlton. 

At present, the school is filled to its utmost capacity — 350 
students — and is, in fact as well as in name, a Normal School. 

The Pioard of Instruction, June, 1876, is as follows: 

Charles H. Alien Principal 

J. H. Braly Vice-Principal. 

Henry B. Norton Natural Science. 

Ira Moore Language. 

Miss Eliza W. Houghton Preceptress. 

Mrs. Lucy M. Washburn Assistant in Junior Class. 

Miss Cornelia "Walker Assistant in Junior Class. 

Miss Annie E. Chamberlain Assistant in Junior Class. 

m£ SS c. ?^'^fghf : :} p-p-to'-^ i>^p-'"™*- 

Miss Mary J. Titus Principal of Training School. 

Miss Florence Grigsby Assistant in Training School. 



NUMBER OF GRADUATES OF THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 



Tear. 

'63. 
'64. 
'65. 
'66. 
'67. 
'68. 
'69. 



No. 

. 4 

.28 
.25 
.22 
.41 
.38 
.29 



Year. 

70., 
'71. 

'72., 

73. 

74. 

75. 

'76. 



No. 

.45 
.21 
.17 
.20 
.33 
.46 
.36 



Whole number 414. 



V. STATE BOARDS OF EDUCATION. 



By the School Law of 1852, the State Board of Education 
was made to consist of the Governor, State Superintendent, and 
the Surveyor-General. The Surveyor-General was included 
because the law originally proposed to entrust the Board with 
the sales of school lands. This, however, was not done; and 
the State Board remained, up to 1864, without powers or duties, 



BOARDS OF EXAMINATION. 171 

except 'to apportion, annually, the State school moneys. In 
1S64, the State Board was made to consist of the Governor, the 
State Superintendent, and the County Superintendents of San 
Francisco, Sacramento, and San Joaquin. The Board was em- 
powered to adopt a uniform series of text-books, for all schools 
except in incorporated cities; to require a uniform course of 
study, and to make rules and regulations for the schools. In 
1865, the Board was enlarged by the addition of the Principal' 
of the State Normal School, and of two members appointed by 
the State Superintendent. In 1872, the two appointive mem- 
bers were cut off. In 1864, the State Board was made, ex officio, 
the Board of Normal School Trustees; repealed, 1870. 



VI. TEACHERS' CERTIFICATES AND BOARDS OF 
EXAMINATION. 



From 1850 to 1860, the power of examining teachers for cer- 
tificates was vested in District School Trustees and City Boards 
of Education. These Boards were authorized to grant certifi- 
cates " of good moral character and fitness to teach a common 
school one yeary 

In 1860, Superintendent Moulder secured the passage of a 
law providing for a State Board of Examination, appointed by 
the State Superintendent, with power to grant certificates, valid 
for two years, and for County Boards, appointed by County 
Superintendents, with power to issue county certificates, valid 
for one year. 

The power of examining teachers was still vested in City 
Boards of Education, which were not required to recognize 
State certificates. 

At the State Institute, Sacramento, 1862, the first State ex- 
amination was held by Superintendent Moulder and a Board 
made up of County Superintendents. The examination was 
somewhat informal, and mostly oral. The Board granted five 
Grammar School certificates and twelve "Mixed School" certifi- 
cates. 



172 BOARDS OF EXAMINATION. 

From 1851 to 1863, teachers in San Francisco were examined 
every year. At first, these examinations were oral; but, in 
1856, the Board introduced written examinations. 

Concerning this annual re-examination of experienced teachers^ 

Superintendent Swett, in his first Report, said : 

No one cause has done so much to render the occupation of a 
pubHc school teacher distasteful as the old system of annual ex- 
aminations. Teachers were condemned to be tried, not by a jury 
of their peers, but too often by men who knew little or nothing of 
practical teacbing", and who not unfrequently made the annual ex- 
amination a guillotine for decapitating any unlucky pedagogue who 
had fallen under ban of their petty displeasure. A teacher in. 
the public schools, though he might have, added to the finest 
natural abilities for teaching, a complete professional training in 
the best normal schools in the United States; though he might be 
crowned with honors, won by many years of successful experience; 
though he might be esteemed by the community, and revered b}' 
thousands of grateful pupils — at the end of each year, forsooth, he 
must be " examined" by a committee of lawyers, doctors, dentists, 
book-binders, contractors, and non-professional men, to ascertain if 
he were "fit to teach a Common School!" After having passed 
through the examination mill annually, nine years in succession, 
tvirned out each time with a " bran new" certificate of " fitness to 
teach a Common School one year," I can speak feelingly on this 
subject. These annual examinations of experienced teachers offered 
an annual insvilt to intelligence, by lumping character, aptness to 
teach, moral and social culture, in tabular statements of " percent- 
age" on arithmetic and spelling, in which infinitesimal details 
counted everything, character and success nothing at all. Actual 
trial in the school-room is the best test of fitness to teach; and 
when a teacher has once passed examination, and proved success- 
ful in school, subsequent examinations are uncalled for and un- 
necessary'. 

I remember more than one successful teacher, arraigned before 
the Examination Star Chamber, who was decapitated by the official 
guillotine of "percentage," because he happened to fail "on the 
best route from Novogorod to Kiliraandijaro," or from " Red Dog- 
to You Bet;" or forgot the population of Brandy Gulch, Humbugs 
Canon, or Pompeii; or could not remember the names of all the 
rivers of the world, from the Amazon down to the brook where he 
caught " minnows" with pin hooks when a boy; or blundered on 
some arithmetical shell, hard enough to pierce the hide of a moni- 
tor; or chanced to spell traveler with two I's; or happened, finally,, 
to fall one tenth of one credit below nine hundred and ninety-nine, 
the standard which exactly' gauged the moral character and intel- 
lectual ability of a man " fit to teach a Common School one year." 
The new State law, by granting diplomas for six 3'ears, relieves 
teachers from the annoyance of such examinations, and is the first 
step towards recognizing teaching as a profession. It was m}^ firm 



BOARDS OF EXAMINATION. 173 

<5onviction from the first, that the end sought would be best attained 
hj vesting the authority to examine candidates in a board of prac- 
tical teachers, selected for that specific purpose. The future suc- 
cess of this important movement will depend upon retaining this 
principle as a foundation. Teachers have a right to demand an ex- 
amination by their peers. 

In the State Institute circuhir, 1863, the subject of teachers' 
certificates was noticed as follows : 

The State Board of Examiners will hold an examination of all ap- 
plicants who desire to obtain State certificates during the Institute 
Session. By an amendment to the school law, these certificates re- 
main in force during the term of four years — relieving the holders 
from all further examination by County Boards. It would be diffi- 
cult to adduce an}^ reason whatever for the annual examination of 
teachers, except the natural desire which some seem to entertain for 
tormenting unlucky applicants for district schools. There are many 
able teachers in the State whose pride revolts at the humiliation. 
Under the old law, a teacher in the public schools, though he might 
have added to the finest natural abilities for teaching, a complete 
professional training in the best Normal schools in the United States 
— though he might have grown gray in the service, might be crowned 
with the well-earned honors of many successful schools, be revered 
by thousands of grateful pupils — though he had graduated from a 
universit}^— yet he could not apply for the smallest district school in 
the remotest corner of the State, without "passing an examination;" 
and, if he wished to teach another year, he had to travel twenty or 
thirty miles to pass examination, to satisfy the State that he was "Jit 
to keep a common school!" And further, if he wished to remove to 
another county, he must be examined by another Board, to ascertain 
his fitness to teach a common school! If examination imparts fitness 
to teach, some of the teachers in tiiis State ought to be well fitted 
for their occupation. 

In 1862-3, Superintendent Swett secured important amend- 
ments to the law relating to certificates and examining boards; 
and in 1865-6, the Eevised School Law made elaborate provisions 
for the whole subject. 

This law authorized the State Board of Education to issue 
State Life Diplomas to teachers of at least 10 years' experience, 
holders of State Educational Diplomas; provided for City 
Boards of Examination, consisting exclusively of professional 
teachers; required City Boards of Education to recognize the 
validity of State certificates ; required the percentages obtained 
in the different studies to be indorsed on the back of the cer- 
tificate; required the State Board to issue certificates to the 
holders of State Normal School diplomas, and of State life cer- 



174: ': /' BOARDS OF EXAMINATION. 

tificates of all other States in tlie United States; provided for 
granting State certiticates on tlie results of county examinations- 
with the State series of questions — in other words, made teach- 
ing a legal profession. 

These provisions, with slight amendments, are retained in the 
present school law. 

On this subject, Mr. Swett spohe as follows, before the 
National Educational Association, at Boston, August 6-8, 1872 : 

By way of introducing my subject, and for the purjoose of showing 
why I entertain radical views on the common methods of examiniug 
teachers, and of granting them certificates, I am constrained to offer 
my own experience as an illustration. 

Twent}^ years ago this very month, moved by the migrator}' instinct 
that seems to be hereditary in so many Yankee boys, impelling them 
to take flight in search of warmer climes and richer feeding-grounds, 
I sailed out of Boston harbor bound for California, "round the 
Horn." 

My pocket-book was not plethoric with money, but carefully 
stowed away in its ample folds there were three certificates, every one 
of which bore the most positive evidence as to my good moral char- 
acter, and certified to my " ability and fitness to teach a common 
school for the term of one year." One of these, like its holder, had 
its birth in the Old Granite State. 

It bore the signature of a " Deestrict School Trustee," dear old 
Deacon Brown, who examined me in the vowel sounds, and the conso- 
nant sounds; asked me to pronounce correctly g-e-iv-g-a-w , and, by 
way of a clincher, required me to define the four parts of English 
Grammar according to Lindley Murray, to wit: Orthography, Ety- 
mology, Syntax, and Prosody. 

The other two certificates were dated in the town of Timbxictoo, in 
the old Bay State, almost in the shadow of Bunker Hill. I was ex- 
amined in the dingy office of a cobwebbed old lawyer, who was quite 
as scientific in his style of doing things, as was dear old Deacon 
Brown. 

It is enough to say that every one of these examinations was as 
great a farce as it would "be for Vincent Collier to examine an Apache 
Indian in mental and moral j)hilosoj)hy and theology, or rather, as 
absurd as it would be for a green-grocer to examine John Stuart Mill 
in political economy. 

I would not rake up old events that happened so near the cradle of 
the common-school system, excejDt that on returning, nearly a 
quarter of a century later, I find that good old way of examining 
teachers still going on in my native State, and in some other States 
that I do not now care to mention. 

When I reached California, I mined, until I found myself dead- 
broke; worked as a day-laborer on a ranch; sought in vain for per- 
manent employment, save only the profession of blacking boots; 



BOAEDS OF EXAMINATION. 175 

and, at the end of the year, looked sadly at my certificates, and, as 
a last desperate resort, " looked round" for a school. 

I heard of a school, but my old certificates were not current in 
California; and the flattering letters of Prof. Eussell, who taught 
me how to teach, availed me nothing. I had to be "examined" 
before I could be patented to be " fit to teach a common school in 
the State of California, for one year," and a miserable little school 
of half-Spanish children at that. 

The school trustee, a Yankee minister, a man of huge body and 
enormous pomposity, did his duty with an awful dignity, which 
nobody but a little-minded man , in a petty little ofiice, can ever aspire 
to. It was the same old rigmarole of " readin', 'ritiu' and 'rithentic," 
with never a question to test education, culture, or power to teach. 

After a half-daji's examination, he gave me a certificate, and the 
school to somebody else. 

Then I went to San Francisco. There was a vacancy in the school 
department. The old examination-mill was still kept running under 
Yankee management. Fifteen of us, all in a row, like good little 
boys in school, were questioned " once round" in arithmetic, " once 
round " in grammar, " once round " in geography, " once round " 
in spelling, by the Superintendent and the Mayor — the former a Ver- 
mont Yankee, and the latter like unto him, except he hailed from a 
city nigh unto Boston, where they gibbeted witches instead of 
teachers. 

I was told I ranked first of the batch; and of coiirse somebody 
else, who had "influence with the board," got the place. The suc- 
cessful somebody this time was a young doctor without patients. 
He soon resigned, and I was allowed the privilege, at $125 a month, 
of conquering a peace by subduing the j'oung hoodlums, or of meet- 
ing the fate of my predecessor. 

This was how 1 became a schoolmaster, and how I won my way 
into the noblest profession — I think that is what they call it some- 
times in educational conventions. 

For eight successive years I taught the same school, and — I am 
am ashamed to own it, and would not tell it were it not necessary to 
illustrate what I intend to pi-esent — I had the cowardice, like other 
teachers with me, to submit to eight annual examinations, in order 
to determine my fitness, at each annual revolution of the sun, to 
teach the same school each succeeding school year. 

Nor was this the end of humiliation and insult. After getting a 
" bran new " certificate at the end of each year, before I could go 
on again, I had to be elected by the votes of twelve members of the 
Board of Ediication, because my term of ofiice lasted oi^j;-^ one year. 
This annual election system was handed down to us from the primi- 
tive New England " town meetings." I believe that here in Boston, 
and in all New England cities and villages, and, in fact, in most 
parts of the United States, it is still kept up. A teacher holds the 
ofiice only one year, and then he is at the mere}' of any school di- 
rector, or local member of the board, who may have some spite to 
wreak, or some relative to put in. Much as I honor the occupation 
of teaching, I am not in love with a system that tends to take all 
the manliness out of a man, and all the independence from a woman. 



176 BOARDS OF EXAMINATION. 

Under such a barbarous system of office-holding, rather than have 
a son of mine become a common-school teacher, I would apprentice 
him to the trade of a tanner, a tailor, or a shoemaker. He might 
then stand some possible chance of rising in the political world. 
For myself, rather than teach under it, I would contest with Nasby 
the postmastership of the Confederate Cross-Roads. 

At length, dragged out of my bed, after a typhoid fever that 
brought me to the verge of the grave — a sickness brought on by 
over-work, worry and anxiety — in order to be run through the examin- 
ation-mill di, ninth time, the hereditary blood of my grandfather, who 
"fit" in the Revolution, rose up in rebellion. I vowed to breakup 
and root out the annual-examination farce, and the New-England- 
town-meeting-annual-election humbug, both of which had followed 
me across the continent, like the ghost of some grim old Puritan, 
sticking closer than the accent of "Yankee-land in our mother tongue. 

So I left the school-room, went into political conventions, secured 
a nomination for the only office ever open to a schoolmaster, that of 
State f5uperintendent of Public Instruction, stumped the State, won 
two successive elections, and the third time, with my whole party, 
won a defeat; framed a school-law; established free schools; lobbied 
legislatures; secured a legal recognition of professional teachers; 
abolished the New England annual-examination farce; and, in San 
Francisco, broke up the annual }otation-in-office election system; 
placed the examination of teachers throughout the State exclusively 
in the hands of experienced teachers, thereby ruining the occupa- 
tion and the glory of many a learned committee-man; secured life 
diplomas for experienced and capable teachers; gained a legal recog- 
nition of the normal school diplomas of all State normal schools in 
the United States; and, by law, made valid in California the life 
diplomas and State certificates granted to teachers by other States. 

All these reforms cost me _years of hard work and determined 
eflfort, and you will understand why I entertain strong convictions 
on the subject of teachers' certificates. 

For nearly twenty j'ears, on the western verge of the continent, I 
have been engaged in a kind of border warfare in education. My 
educational notions have changed since, I taught school near 
Boston. Living in a State whose people have been gleaned from 
every other State in the Union, from France, Germany, Italy, Eng- 
land, Ireland, Australia, and China, new conditions have made new 
questions to be decided, and new issues to be met. 

While I fully recognize all that is good in New England schools, 
school laws, school customs and usages, I take satisfaction for past 
suffering, in hurling a few brick-bats into the windows of the old 
school-house where I was flogged. 

Before touching on the subject of professional certificates, the 
two weak jDoints of our public school system must be taken into 
account. 

1. Of the three hundred thousand persons that " keep school " 
in our country, not more than one tenth can be regarded as profes- 
sional teachers, that is, teachers trained to their business, and intend- 



B0ARD8 OF EXAMINATION. 177 

ing to pursue it for a term of years. From the various normal 
schools altogether, there are graduated, annually, not more than two 
thousand at a very liberal estimate, and of these at least one half 
drop out of the occupation in five years. 

Most of our schools onf.mle of our. large cities, and many of the 
lower classes ivi/ldn our cities, are " kept," not taught, by unskilled 
and untrained labor, at the wages of unskilled labor. The pay of 
these unskilled "school-keepers" is less than that of any class of 
artisans or mechanics in any occupation that requires a trained 
apprenticeship. 

These " school-keepers" are quite as good a/i the people deserve, 
and in most cases better than they ought to get for the wages paid. 
Until the people recognize the necessity of schools all the year 
round, until they recognize that teaching is an art, until they,are will- 
ing to pay for skilled training, instead of mere '•' school-keeping," 
the broken summer and winter schools, kept by young girls waiting 
to get married, and by boys working their way througli college, or 
into other occupations and professions, or by migratory Icliabod 
Cranes, must serve the purpose of keeping the children out of utter 
barbarism, by giving them a chance to learn to read and write, and 
reckon dollars and cents. 

The abstract theory of our school system is fine enough, but the 
census statistics loom up in fearful significance as a dark back- 
ground. We shall learn before long that mere reading and writing 
do not constitute education, and that scljoolmasters and school- 
ma'ams are not necessarily teachers. 

It is a quarter of a century since I went to school in my native vil- 
lage. I return and find the school there is no better than when I 
was a school-boy. That village scliool is a fair type of many schools 
all over our country. It will not do to pick out a few cities, and 
shut our eyes to the rural districts. 

When I went to school, we boys had neither training nor culture. 
We learned to read and write and cipher, and memorized text-books, 
but we were not educated; and hundreds of thousands of boys and 
girls, all over our country, are doing the same thing at the present 
time. 

It matters but little how the temporary keepers of schools of this 
type are examined. Still, there ought to be a plan devised by which 
the untutored, untrained and unskilled " school-keeper" shall not 
be placed on the same footing and paid the same wages as the accom- 
plished graduate of a normal school, or the self-made teacher, 
trained in actual work in the school-room. 

Schools of this class were well enough in the ruder years of the 
republic, when men and women were subduing the wilderness, 
driving out the savages, and laying the rough foundations of a great 
nation. But the time is now rapidly coming when, in consequenco 
of a denser population, the struggle for existence will become fiercer, 
when there will no longer be millions of acres of fertile land to be 
taken up at nominal prices, and made productive by unskilled labor. 
The time is coming when our artisans and mechanics must be trained 



178 BOARDS OF EXAMINATION. 

to compete with those from the technical and industrial schools of 
European countries. 

Our schools in the small villages and farming districts must be 
reorganized to meet this new order of things, and the people must 
employ skilled teachers, and pay them the wages of skilled labor. 

2. The other radical defect in the practical working of our school 
syfistem is the short terms of school officers and superintendents, and 
their election by direct vote of the people in general elections. 

Annual elections suited the genius of New England towns when 
the government was the purest type of a democracy, and when the 
machinery of great political parties was unknown ; but, applied to 
great cities, to States, and to the broader expanse of the "West, the 
short term of office and the annual election have been ruinous in 
their results, not only in educational offices, but in all others. 

There can be no steady progress in public schools without long- 
continued, systematic efforts; and there can be no systejn when one 
set of school officials succeeds another as often as the seasons 
change. By the time one set of school officers has learned some- 
thing about the condition and wants of the schools, by some change 
in the politics of the city or town, a new set succeeds, bent on reform- 
ing the work of their predecessors. 

In many parts of our country, already, school boards elected by 
one political party feel under no obligation to retain in j^lace the 
teachers appointed by the opposite part}', and the outrageous annual- 
election farce, which cowardly teachers have so long submitted to 
without a struggle, affords a hue opportunity to drop out the old 
ones and run in the new. 

Gradually, but surely, the schools are coming to be considered as 
legitimate party spoils of the victors, and the struggle for position 
on boards of education in all our great cities is mainly to control 
the patronage of appointments. There has been a great deal of 
talk about reform in civil-service appointments, but the country 
stands in greater need of reform in the manner of making educa- 
tional apj^ointments. There is more favoritism, more of politics 
and church, mixed up in the annual appointments of the 300,000 
teachers in the country than in all the custom-houses; and there is 
more ignorance and unfitness for position than in all the post-offices 
and civil-service places taken together. 

I make no random assertions. I speak from a thorough personal 
knowledge of our State; and teachers and educators from other 
States affirm the same condition of things with them. It is un- 
doubtedly worse in the newer States than in the older, and worse in 
the States evenly balanced, and subject to frequent political changes, 
than in the one-sided States always controlled by the same political 
party. Right here in Boston, the centre of conservatism, there is 
little change, because for twenty-five years there has been no change 
in the political character of the Board of Education. But, each suc- 
ceeding year, every one of the thousand teachers here feels that it is 
possible for one single enemy on the Board to secure, by persistent 
misrepresentation, and by trading votes, the removal of any teacher. 
Occasionally, even in Utopia, it happens that a teacher is "left out," 



BOARDS OF EXAMINATION. 179 

and consequently no teaelier can act or can think independently; 
and it is even whispered that it makes a mrierial difference with a 
man's chances whether he be a believer in Cotton Mather or in 
Darwin. 

If the Boston Brahmins like this condition of petty servitude to 
school directors, I am perfectly willing they shall fold their arms 
with all due meekness and gratitude, leaving the work of reforma- 
tion to outside barbarians. They get better salaries than we do out 
West, and consequently are conservative. 

Until there is a reform in these defective points of our school 
system, it seems to me there can be no marked and permanent im- 
provement in our public schools as a whole. There will be indi- 
vidual schools that, under superior teachers, will attain a high 
degree of excellence; but the general average of the schools cannot 
be raised much higher than it is, because the system neither en- 
courages independent thought nor tolerates progress. 

Puttering in conventions over the little details of teaching arith- 
metic, grammar, and geography, will avail nothing. Men are wanted 
to shape legislation, to dig out the cZe^ris, and with strong and rough 
hands to lay the superstructure of a better system of American school 
supervision and school teaching. 

There are some men and women engaged in public school service 
who make teaching a life-work, who understand their business, and 
who are earnestly devoted to their work, and the rights and privi- 
leges of this class demand a careful consideration. There are only 
a few States that have any system of professional examinations by 
which a public school teacher can secure a professional life diploma, 
and thereafter be exempted from the humiliation of periodic exam- 
inations by petty school officials, just emerging from babyhood of 
official ignorance of the whole subject of education. 

And even if a life certificate can be secured in a few States, such 
as Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, or California, it is of no legal value outside 
of the particular State in which it is granted. California is the only 
State that recognizes by law the State diplomas and certificates of 
other States, by placing them on an equal footing with her own. 
Were I, after twenty years of continous service as a teacher, as State 
Superintendent, and as Dejouty City Superintendent of San Fran- 
cisco, holding in my jjossession dozens of defunct certificates, and a 
life diploma of the State of California, were I to go back to my 
native town, and seek employment in my native State by teaching- 
the little " Deestrict School" that I went to when a barefoot boy, 
I should have to "pass examination" to determine my fitness to 
teach a little squad of boys and girls to read and write. The school 
law of New Hampshire not only fails to recognize the educational 
diplomas of mushroom States like California; but, with true Puritan 
stubbornness, neglects to provide her own sons, who pick up educa- 
tion enough to become teachers, Avith any kind of a State document 
which they can carry with them to the State where they go to earn a 
living. 

It would be the same were I to go "looking out for a school " in 
Maine, or Vermont, or Massachusetts, or Khode Island, or Connec- 
ticut, or any State in the Union except my own adopted State. 



180 BOARDS OF EXAMINATION. 

Were my esteemed personal friend Mr. Philbrick, the Superin- 
tendent of the Public Schools of Boston, crowned with the well- 
earned honors of twenty-five j^ears of educational labor, to lose his 
position at the next annual election, and in consequence, were to 
emigrate to California, to teach school to earn a living, he would 
have to pass a rigid Avritten examination, before he could draw a 
dollar of the school fund for teaching the smallest school, in the 
roughest mining camp in the State. Massachusetts has provided no 
means of giving her educational veterans a certificate of public- 
school service. 

No State in the Union, except California, recognizes b}^ law the 
normal school diplomas of other States. In fact, many of the States 
fail to recognize b_y law the diplomas given to the graduates of their 
own normal schools. 

There ought to be, in every State, a State Board of Examination, 
made up exclusivel.y of professional teachers, including the State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, having power to issue life 
-di^^lomas to experienced teachers of the highest rank, and certificates 
of lower grades to younger teachers, of lower rank; these diplomas 
and certificates to be issued only ujiou actual examination in writing, 
and the record of examination to be indorsed upon the certificates. 
There ought, also, to be a system of broad and liberal legislation in 
all the States, by means of which a professional teacher holding a 
diploma or certificate in one State, should be guaranteed a legal 
recognition in all the other States. 

It is true that this need is more felt in the newer Western and 
Pacific States than in the older ones. For instance, in California, 
our teachers are drawn from every other State in the Union. These 
teachers must pass a written examination in our State, before they 
•can engage in teaching. This requisition often keeps them waiting 
for several months after their arrival. Occasionally a teacher comes 
"bringing a State certificate or normal school diploma, which is at 
once recognized under our liberal school law. 

But most oft the States have failed to provide for any system of 
State certificates, by means of which their teachers can carry with 
them, when they emigrate, any written evidence of professional 
fitness. 

If the older States do not feel the local need of some provision of 
this kind, the}' owe a dut}' to their educated sons and daughters, 
who seek a wider field of action in the newer States. They owe a 
duty to the cause of National American Education. 

In addition to a State system of examination as a means of pro- 
tecting the public schools against charlatans, ignoramuses, and 
humbugs generally, it is indisiDensabie that ever^^ State have an 
efiicient system of citj^, county, and township boards of examination. 

These boards ought to be made up of each city, county, or town 
superintendent, together with from three to five professional teach- 
ers, themselves holders of high-grade certificates. They should 
have power to issue, on actual written examinations, certificates of 
diff'erent grades, valid for periods of time ranging from two to ten. 
years, according to grade. 



BOARDS OF EXAMINATipN. 181 

These boards ought to be paid a reasonable sum for their work, 
otherwise it will not be well done. They ought to be made up ex- 
clusively of practical teachers, for the same reason that only lawyers 
can legally examine law students api^lying for admission to the bar, 
that only physicians examine medical students, and that only clergy- 
men pass on the titness of theological students to enter the ministry. 
By combining- a system of State, city, county, and town examinations, 
together with inter-state legislation, something might be done to 
raise the standard of public school teaching. 

It is a matter of surprise that so little has already been done in this 
direction. It can only be accounted for by the fact that nine tenths 
of the men and women engaged in keeping school are intending and 
expecting to get out of the business as soon as they can. Otherwise, 
they would never submit to the humiliation of successive examina- 
tions by petty officials, who often know little or nothing about edu- 
cation, but who delight in a brief official importance. 

It is urged against this plan of competitive, professional examina- 
tions in writing, that "percentages" represent mere scholarship, 
and fail to gauge the power to discipline, the tact to manage, and 
the skill to teach. 

This may be true to some extent, but it is also certain that, while 
some good scholars inajfail when submitted to the final test of the 
school-room, no ignorant teacher can possibly make a good teacher 
under any circumstances. There is a grade of scholarship below 
which no man or woman is fitted to make a trial of teaching. Above 
this standard, some will svicceed and some will fail. So it is with 
graduates of the law schools, the divinity schools, and the medical 
schools. 

It may be urged that boards of examination will show favorit- 
ism in issuing certificates to friends. So they will, unless the people- 
elecfincorruptible school officers, and appoint incorruptible teachers. 
The best laws ever framed, and the best systems ever devised, are 
never binding on corrupt or incapable executive officers. 

It may be urged that the diploma of a college ought to be taken 
as a valid certificate of fitness to teach. Now a college-bred youngs 
man may or may not be qualified to teach. I have known many 
young men coming to California, with flying colors and fresh diplo- 
mas, who ignominiously failed to secure a certificate to teach even 
the lowest grade country school, on an examination in arithmetic, 
grammar, geography, history, reading, and spelling, so elementary 
in its character, that to a pupil of average attainment in the second 
grade of an ordinary grammar school, it would have been mere play. 
They not only showed no "fitness to teach," but they exhibited a 
most lamentable ignorance of the very elements required to be taught 
in every common school. They might have been brilliant in the dead 
languages, but they misspelled their mother tongue, they murdered 
English, and they couldn't cipher. There can be no safe and feure 
test, except actual examination. 

I do not deny that the hobby of written examinations may be 
ridden to death. It has been wickedly said by somebody — doubtless 
some luckless examinee — that the leading object of many examina- 



182 BOARDS OF EXAMINATION. 

tions is to give the examiners a chance to show off their own attain- 
ments. I have seen many sets of questions that seemed to be fossil 
curiosities, picked up during a life-long search after abnormal things 
— "tough sums" in arithmetic and algebra, the product of some 
mathematician run to seed; gleanings of the tag ends of the 
countless rules, and notes and exceptions, and annotations and ex- 
planations, and illustrations and idioms, of Lindley Murray, that 
great grammarian who wrote bad English, and made sad the hearts 
of unnumbered generations of school boys and school girls; twisted 
elliptical sentences to be parsed according to Smith, or Brown, or 
Greene, or Wells, or Weld, or Sanborn, or Kerl, or Hart, or Clark, 
or Quackenbos, or Bullion, or Piuneo, or Nokes, or Stokes, or Niles, or 
Stiles, or Thompson, or Pickwick; unheard-of words of crooked or- 
thography, the gnarled growth of centuries of changes of the English 
tongue, strung together like onions, in away that would have brought 
tears to the eyes of old Webster himself, that dear old philological 
bush-ranger, who fought orthography on his own hook, in defiance of 
all usage, and of all laws of linguistic warfare; questions in geog- 
raphy on zig-zag boundaries, on the length of all the rivers of all the 
world, from the Amazon down to the trout-brooks that we fished in 
when boys; on the distance of the classic towns of " You Bet" and 
*' Ked Dog," in California, from Nijni Novogorod and the sources of 
the Nile; on the direction of Brandy Gulch and Whisky Canon 
from XJjiji and Petropaulovski; questions in historj^ requiring the 
year and the day of the month of the settlement of every State in 
the Union, supplemented by senseless interrogatories on historical 
m^'ths known only in our school text-books; impracticable questions 
on theory and practice of teaching, about what ought to be done 
under impossible conditions; questions about elements of penman- 
ship that even such accomplished penmen as Greeley, or Choate, or 
Naj^oleon Bonaparte, couldn't answer; questions on Sanscrit roots 
no Brahmin ever heard of; questions on the constitution that would 
have floored the " Great Expounder;" questions on physiology that 
would puzzle Darwin; questions on natural i^hilosophj' at which 
Huxley or Tyndall would be dumb; questions which showed the ex- 
aminer to be " stick, stark, staring mad," and which no sane man 
could answer. But a practical system of examinations presupposes 
a common-sense style of conducting them. 

In conclusion, I submit the following propositions for the consid- 
eration of teachers, and educators, and legislators: 

1. A comprehensive system of State, city, county, and town 
Boards of Examination. 

2. Boards of Examination to be made up of State, city, county, 
or town superintendents, together with a limited number of profes- 
sional teachers, appointed in the manner best suited to the school 
systems of the different States. 

3. A graded series of teachers' certificates, from life diplomas 
down to temporary certificates, valid for one year, granted on actual 
■examination only. 

4. Examinations to be conducted in writing, and the percentages 
obtained in each study to be indorsed on the certificates. 



SPECIMEN SET OF QUESTIONS. 



183 



5. A legal recognition by each State of the professional certifi- 
cates issued in other States. 

6. A provision for the legal recognition, by Boards of Examina- 
tion in each State, of the normal school diplomas issued by the 
normal schools of other States and other countries. _ 

7. A determined and combined effort to shape legislation so as to 
secure longer terms of office to State, city, county, and town super- 
intendents, to members of Boards of Education, and to school 
trustees, thereby securing some degree of uniform progress in edu- 
cational management. 

8. A war of independence, to be waged against the outrageous 
system of the annual election of teachers, a plan which reduces them 
below the level of the holder of the smallest post-office in the gift 
of a victorious political party. 



SPECIMEN SET OF QUESTIONS. 

QUAKTEKLY EXAMINATION, JtTNE, 1876. 

OEDEE OF EXAMINATION. 



1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 

5. 
6. 

7. 
8. 

y. 

10. 

11. 

12. 



General Questions. 

Orthography 100 

Grammar 100 

Written Arithmetic 100 

Geography 50 

^Reading (with oral exercises) 50 

Theory and Practice 50 

Defining (word analysis) 50 

Mental Arithmetic 50 

*Oral Grammar 25 

History of the United States. . 50 
Composition 50 



13. Penmanship 25 

14. Algebra 50 

15. Natural Philosophy 50 

16. Physiology 50 

17. Natural History 50 

18. Constitution of United States 

and California 25 

19. School Laws of California 25 

20. Industrial Drawing 25 

21. Vocal Music 25 

Total 1000 



* The Oral Examination may be conducted at any time, by taking each appli- 
cant separately. 

I. GENERAL QUESTIONS. 

1. Name, age, birthplace. 

2. Where educated. 

3. Experience in teaching. 

4. What certificate, if any. 

5. Are you an applicant for a State certificate ? 



2. SPELLING. 
I. DICTATION PAEAGRAPH. 

[50 Credits. Three Credits off for each misspelled word, or misi^laced capital.] 

Had the Plantagenets, as at one time seemed likely, succeeded in 
uniting all France under their government, it is probable that 
England would never have had an independent existence. The 
noble language of Milton and Burke would have remained a 



184 



SPECIMEN SET OF QUESTIONS. 



rustic dialect, "without a literature, a fixed grammar, or a fixed 
ortbog-raphj^ and would have been contemptuously abandoned 
to the use of boors. No man of English extraction would have 
risen to eminence, except by becoming, in speech and habits, a 
Frenchman. 

II. WORDS. 



[50 Credits. One Credit off for ench luisspelled word.] 



harangue 

fricasee 

maintenance 

blamable 

feasible 

inexorable 

independence 

contrivance 

farinaceous 

Isaialr 

hieroglyphics 

dei'ciidant 

Buddhism 



vignette 

guarantee 

rendezvous 

curable 

responsible 

noticeable 

suppliance 

perseverance 

sacrilegious 

Matthew 

domicile 

pharmacy 



diphtheria 

professor * 

Pestalozzi 

ni etempsychosis 

vaccination 

anonymous 

wasn't 

immaculate 

bissextile 

sphericity 

tyrannical 

inflammable 



corridor 

kindergarten 

convertible 

vacillation 

indestructible 

mnsn't 

curriculum 

avoirdupois 

technology 

philologist 

ammunition 

metapln'sician 

Mohammedanism 



3. GRAMMAR. 



[100 Credits. Time, 1% hours.] 

1. "Write a synoj^sis of the verb to speak, in the indicative mood^ 
third person, singular number, passive voice. 

2. State three cases where the relative tJiat must be used in pref- 
erence to ^vho or which, and illustrate each case by a sentence. 

3. State all the noiin-si(ffixes and verb-suffixes of inflection, in 
English. 

4. Write the plurals of — 1, focus; 2, index; 3, his; 4, memoran- 
dum; 5, animalcule. 

6. Correct such of the following as are not, in your opinion, good 
English : 

I. You had better go. 
II. I had rather not do it. 
III. The ship was soon lost sight of. 
lY. It is the strongest case I ever heard of. 
V. " The deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade." 

6. " The squirrel eyes askance the chestnuts browning." Parse^ 
■with brief forms: 1, squirrel; 2, eyes; 3, askance; 4, browning; 5, 
chestnuts. 

7. " Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, 

Their homely joys and destiny obscure; 
Nor Grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile, 
The short and simple annals of the poor." 

I. What kind of a sentence ? 

II. How many statements, or propositions? 
III. Why a comma after toil ? 
lY. Why a semicolon after obscure F 

Y. Derivation of simple ? 



SPECIMEN SET OF QUESTIONS. 185 

8. Parse, with brief models: 1, ambition; 2, grandeur; 3, hear;'^- 
4, obscure; 6, why are ambition and grandeur caj^italized ? 

9. State five ways in which you can make use of a reading lesson 
in connection with grammar ? 

10. Correct the following sentences, and give a general rule or 
direction to pupils, covering each case: 

I. The lecture was brief, short, and concise. 
II. She is a teacher whom all are pleased with. 

III. A pin was accidentally swallowed by a little girl with- 

out a head. 

IV. We reached home, at length, after great difficulty, in a 

blinding snow-storm, through deep snow drifts. 
V. It can be no worse for us, if we fail. 

4. WRITTEN ARITHMETIC, 

[100 Credits. Time, 23^ hours.] 

[Note. — Leave all your work on the paper; make no analysis or explanation 
unless called for, and then give in full.] 

1. Perform the following operations: Multiply 3.05 by 2\, sub- 
tract 0.21, divide the result by ^, and add to it the quotient of 9 
divided by l-900th. 

2. A man owned a square field, containing ten acres. He gave 
enough from it for a street 4 rods wide, all around it. How much 
land had he left? 

3. How many feet of siding, six inches wide, will cover the sides 
of a house which is 24 feet by 30 feet, and 15 feet high, allowing ^ 
for the lap. (No gable ends.) 

4. A water tank is 3i wide and 5^ feet long. How deep must it 
be to hold 8 hogsheads ? 

5. A man sold two horses for $240 each; on the one he gained 20 
per cent., and on the other he lost 20 per cent. Did he gain or lose 
on the two transactions, taken together, and how miach ? 

6. A vertical jDole 99 feet high is standing in a j)ublic park, 
equally distant from the four corners of the park. The park is rect- 
angular, and 16 rods b}-- 36 rods. How far is it from the top of the 
pole to a corner of the park ? 

7. A merchant sold goods at 30 per cent, profit, and paid |^ per 
cent, of his gross receipt for expenses, what is his net gain on sales 
amounting to $8,000 ? 

8. Deduce the multiplier used in compound interest for finding 
the compound interest on any sum of money, at 5 per cent., for 5 
years. 

9. An eccentric old lady papered the walls of her room with 3 
cent postage stamjDS. Her room was 16 by 10 feet, and 12 feet 
high; it had 2 windows, each 5h by 4 feet, and 2 doors, each 6 by 
3 feet. A postage stamj) is 1 inch long by 15-16 wide. What was 
the cost of papering her room ? 

10. On a promissory note from John Doe to Richard Roe, San 
Francisco, January 4, 1874, for $1,200, payable on demand, 10 per 
cent, a year, there were paid: March 19, 1874, $300; Aug. 15, 

12 



186 SPECIMEN SET OF QUESTIONS. 

1874, $200; Dec. 21, 1874, $150. Write the note in due form, and 
compute the interest hy the Business Eule up to the time of pay- 
ment, Jan. 4, 1875. 

5. GEOGRAPHY. 

[50 Credits. Time, 1 hour.] 

1. On a steamer trip from New Orleans to Pittsburgh, name the 
five largest cities you would pass, and the State in which each is 
situated. 

2. State the following facts about Europe: 1, area; 2, popula- 
tion; 3, five chief cities; 4, height of Mt. Blanc; 5, five chief rivers. 

3. What is the estimated population, 1876, of : 1, San Francisco; 
2, California; 3, the United States; 4, Philadelphia; 5, St. Louis. 

4. Name the five most populous islands in the world, in the order 
of population. 

5. At what places on the earth is the sun vertical at noon, at least 
once a year ? 

C. How is it proved that the earth is an oblate-spheroid ? 

7. State the chief cause of ocean currents, and also two minor 
causes that influence them. 

8. State the causes of the dense fogs that prevail off the coast of 
Chili and P^ru, Oregon and California. 

9. Name the three chief cities of: 1, New England; 2, the Mid- 
dle States; 3, the Southern States; 4, the Western States; 5, the 
Pacific States. 

10. Name the three leading countries in the production of each of 
the following: 1, cotton; 2, sugar; 3, gold; 4, iron; 5, wool. 

6. READING. 

[25 Credits. Time, 30 minutes.] 

1. Illustrate the use of each of the following marks: 1, macron; 
2, breve; 3; diaeresis; 4, cedilla; 5, caret. 

2. Write ten words having the sound of a in hcdf. 

3. By means of accent, and the notation of vowels used in Web- 
ster's Dictionary, indicate the correct jn-ouunciation of the follow- 
ing words: 1, interesting; 2, museum; 3, irreparable; 4, tirade; 5, 
irrevocable. 

4 and 5. Make the marks used in Webster's Dictionary to indi- 
cate the sound of each vowel in each of the following words: [Ex- 
aminers will write the words upon the blackboards, omitting the no- 
tation. One credit off for each error in notation. 



ale 
arm 


end 
verge 


old 
odd 


up 
rude 


all 

add 


orey 
leir 


move 
done 


pull 
urge 


ask 
what 


pine 
pin 


wplf 
nor 


moon 
foot 


air 
eve 


pique 
thirst 


iise 


fly 



SPECIMEN SET OF QUESTIONS. 187 

7. METHODS OF TEACHING. 

[50 Credits. Time, 1 hour.] 

1. Explain the distinctive features of the methods of instruction 
introduced by Pestalozzi. 

2. Name three important educational toj)ics that are attracting the 
attention of educators, teachers, and school officers. 

3. Name five books on Teaching that you would recommend to 
persons ignorant of both the science and the art of teaching. 

4. What is the so-called Grube System of teaching arithmetic to 
beginners ? 

5. In addition to teaching the table, how would you teach square 
measure to a class '? 

6. Write ten questions on the local geography of the place where 
you are passing examination, such as you would put to a class of 
beginners. 

7. Can you name two leading defects in the text-books on gram- 
mar now in use in this State ? 

8. What criticisms do you make on the arithmetics in use ? 

9. Explain the chemical changes that take place in the burning of 
a candle. 

10. Explain to a class the cause of the strong sea breezes that pre- 
xail in Summer along the coast of California. 

8. DEFINING AND WORD ANALYSIS. 

[50 Credits.] 

1. Derivation and root meaning of: 1, orthography; 2, syntax; 

3, geography; 4, botany; 5, calculate. 

2. Define impediment, and give two synonymous words. 

3. Explain the difference between diuryial and daily, rotation and 
revolution. 

4. Make a list of the Anglo-Saxon prefixes and suffixes. 

5. What classes of words in our language are mainly of Teutonic 
or Anglo-Saxon origin; of Komanic origin? 

6. Derivation and meaning of: 1, scrupulous; 2, supercilious. 

7. Write a single sentence containing both shall and loill correct- 
ly used. 

8. Origin of : 1, volcano; 2, bonanza; 3, demijohn; 4, arcadian; 
5, sybarite, 

9. Define the expression, "resumption of specie payments." 

10. Derivation of: 1, centennial; 2, exposition; 3, Philadelphia; 

4, the title " Dom ; " 5, international. 

9. MENTAL ARITHMETIC. 

[50 Credits. Time, % hour.] 

[Note. — Questions to be read by the Examiner; only the answers 
required.] 

1. What is 500 per cent, of 2/5 ? 

2. What is the interest on $60 for 2^ months, at 6 per cent, a 
year? 



188 SPECIMEN SET OF QUESTIONS. 

3. One-half and one-fiftli of a number, plus 6, equals the num- 
ber; find the number. 

4. Add 2/5 and 3/8. 

5. How many feet in 40 rods? 

6. At 12| cents each, how many oranges can be bought for $40 ? 

7. Divide the decimal .4 by the decimal .05. 

8. How many ounces in 4| pounds of gold ? 

9. In 9 rods, how many feet ? 

10. How many inches in 5/9 of a square foot ? 

11. Find the product of 5x4x6x0xifr. 

12. 150-20-8-5-9-10-9-6-8-6-7-6-8-7-9-8-7 = ? 

13. 1000-300 -200 -100- 200- 70 -20- 2 --9 x 6-9-7=? 

14. How many inches in 5/12 of a cubic foot ? 

15. How many times is i a dollar contained in ^ of a dollar? 

16. Cost of 6^ yards of calico, at 15 cents. 

17. One thousand is five-sixths of what ? 

18. Four-fifths is what part of twenty? 

19. Prime factors of 1728. 

20. Interest of $1, at 6 per cent., for 2 years, 9 months, 21 days. 

21. Interest of $300, for 2 years, 11 months, at 4 jyer cent. 

22. $20 is what per cent, of $30 ? 

23. Find 66| per cent, of $1200. 

24. 24 is 120 per cent, of what? 

25. What number, increased by 80 per cent.= 36? 



II. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

[50 Credits ; 5 Questions, 8 Credits each.] 

1. For what events in the history of the Eevolution is Philadel- 
phia distinguished ? Boston ? 

2. Name four leading colonial wars, and one leading event in 
each, 

3. Of the distinguished Americans during the Kevolutionary war, 
name two leading statesmen, four leading generals, two leading 
orators, one foreign minister, and one leading financier. 

4. During the war of secession, name four Union victories, and 
four Confederate victories, giving the year and the name of the vic- 
torious commander. 

5. Name ten signers of the Declaration of Independence. 

[One Question, Ten Credits.] 

6. State in what way in our history the following persons distin- 
guished themselves: 1, Alexander Hamilton; 2, Robert Morris; 3, 
Benjamin Franklin; 4, Charles Sumner; 5, John C. Calhoun. 

12. COMPOSITION. 

[50 Credits. Time, 1 hour.] 

1. Write five brief directions about composition-writing, such as 
you would give to the highest grade in a Grammar School. 

2. Write two directions about paragraphing. 



SPECIMEN SET OF QUESTIONS. l89 

3. What kind of composition-exercises would you give to children 
in a Primary School, during their third school year ? 

4. Give the " heads" of a composition about Government. 

5. Write the most important rules of punctuation that you would 
give a class in composition, as follows: 1, two rules for the com- 
ma; 2, two rules for the semicolon; 3, one rule for the dash; 4, two 
rules for the exclamation mark; 5, two rules for quotation marks. 

14. ALGEBRA. 

[50 Credits; 5 Questions, 8 Credits each.] 

1. Find the square root of 4a'— 12a'+ 25ft'— 24a + 16. 

2. Divide the number 5 into two such parts that twice their pro- 
duct increased by the sum of their squares may be equal to 25. 

3. Find the value of x and y : 

y^ + Sxy=^4:5 

4. Difference between a pure and an affected quadratic equation ? 

5. Extract the cube root of a"— 6ft'+ 15a*— 20a3+ 15a'— 6a + 1. 

[One Question, Ten Credits.] 

6. What are logarithms, who invented them, and what are their 
uses? 

15. PHYSICS. 

[50 Credits; 5 Questions, 8 Credits each.] 

1. How far will a cannon ball, dropped from a height, fall in 4 
seconds ? 

2. Give four illustrations of the correlation of heat and motion. 

3. How is light supposed to be diffused. 

4. A body would weigh 4 tons, 8,000 miles above the earth's 
surface, find its weight at the surface. 

5. On what law of light does the action of the microscope de- 
pend ? 

[One Question Ten Credits.] 

6. What are . the laws discovered by Eepler that govern the 
motions and distances of the planets ? 



16. PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE. 

[50 Credits; 5 Questions, 8 Credits each.] 

1. State two differences between the veins and the arteries. 

2. State the difference between the functions of the cerebrum 
and the cerebellum. 

3. Direct a class how to treat headaches ; common colds. 

4. In case the artery of the wrist or the ankle were cut, direct a 
pupil how to stop the bleeding until the arrival of a physician. 

5. Give a class five rules for taking care of their eyes. 



190 SPECIMEN SET OF QUESTIONS. 

[One Question, Ten Credits.] 

6. State the locality of: 1, the patella ; 2, the ulna ; 3, scapula; 
4, tibia ; 5, hyoid bone. 



17. NATURAL HISTORY. 

[50 Credits.] 

1. What changes take place in the organs of a flower when it is 
made " double" by culture? 

2. Name and classify five of the most beautiful flowers, indige- 
nous to California, 

3. Give the transformations of the frog. 

4. How does the natural system of classification differ from the 
artificial system ? 

5. Mention the princij^al forest trees of this State. 

6. What are the chief wild animals of this State, and where 
found ? 



18. CONSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES AND 
CALIFORNIA. 

[25 Credits; 5 Questions, 4 Credits each.] 

1. When was the Constitution of the United States framed; who 
was President of the Convention, and when was it adopted by a 
majority of the States. 

2. Name five rights of the people guaranteed by the Constitution 
of the United States. 

3. State the substance of two important amendments to the 
Constitution of the United States. 

4. How is the United States Constitution amended ? 

5. What educational provisions does the Constitution of Califor- 
nia contain ? 

[One Question, Five Credits.] 

6. In framing the Constitution, why was each State, large or 
Bmall, allowed two Senators ? 



19. SCHOOL LAW. 

[25 Credits.] 

1. What are the conditions for obtaining a life diploma? 

2. In what three different ways are school moneys raised by tax- 
ation ? 

3. Name five provisions of the school law that are, in your opin- 
ion, good ones. 

4. What are the provisions of the State law about educating 
negro children ? 

5. How is the State University supported ? 



PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS OF CALIFORNIA. 



191 



20. DRAWING. 

[25 Credits.] 

1. Name any benefits derived from the study of drawing in the 
public schools. 

2. What system of drawing has been adopted in this State ? 

3. What are the distinctive features of this system ? 

4. In a graded school, how much time would you give for draw- 
ing ? In an ungraded school ? 

5. Define: 1, a right-angled triangle; 2, a circle; 3, a surface; 
4, a vertical line; 5, a perpendicular line. 



21. MUSIC. 

[25 Credits.] 

1. How can a teacher that cannot sing have singing in school? 

2. Name two benefits arising from school singing. 

3. How much time ought to be given to singing, and when should 
the time be taken ? 

4. What text-books on music have been adopted by the State 
Board of Education ? 

5. Write the scale. 



VII. THE PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS OF 
CALIFORNIA. 



LIST OF THE HOLDERS OF LIFE DIPLOMAS 

WHICH HAVE BEEN ISSUED ONLY TO HOLDEES OF EDUCATIONAL DIPLOMAS THAT HAVE 
HAD TEN YEAES' EXPEEIENCE IN TEACHING. 

[The names of holders of diplomas who have permaueutly engaged in other 
pursuits are marked t ; the names of holders deceased are marked *.] 



Abbott, W^arren '71 

Aldrich, Abbie F '76 

Allen, L. D '71 

Allsopp, J. P. C '69 

fAmes, Charles C '69 

Ames, Martha '75 

Anderson, J. W '68 

Anderson, Mrs. C. A '73 

Ashton, Mrs. N. J '76 

Atwood, Mrs. C. L '67 

Austin, Miss Minnie F 'QQ 



Babcock, W. S ^....76 

Bagnall, John '67 

fBailey, C. P '68 

fBaker, George F '73 

Baldwin, Miss Nellie '75 

Barnard, Miss A. S '75 

Barr, Miss Sara A '73 

Batchelder, H. T '73 

Baumgardner, Mrs. E. M. . . .'76 

Beals, Mrs. C. R '72 

Benjamin, C. V '72 



192 



PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS OF CALIFORNIA. 



Bennette, Fanny E '69 

Bennett, Miss Mary H '74 

Black, Samuel T '72 

Black, Charles M '74 

Bloomer, A. C '76 

*Bodwell, Miss Mary L '66 

Bolander, H. N '68 

Bradley, Theodore '66 

Bragg, Mary J '75 

Braly, John H 69 

Brodt, A. W '71 

Brown, George '66 

fBrown, F. E '67 

Brown, Miss S. L '74 

Bryerly, John R '76 

Buckman, F. S. S '75 

Bugbey, Mrs. B.N '76 

Bunnell, George W '66 

Burke, Lizzie K '73 

Campbell, Miss C. C '72 

Campbell, F. M '73 

Carlton, H. P '66 

fCasebolt, Miss M. A '72 

Castelhun, Miss Maria A '74 

Chapman, M. V '72 

Chalmers, Miss Annie B '75 

Chestnutwood, Mrs. J. A. . . .'75 

Chestnutwood, Jno. A '73 

Childs, C. W '68 

Clappe, Mrs. L. A. K '68 

Clark, Dorcas '67 

Clark, Mary E '67 

fClark, Miss H. M '6o 

*Clark, L. R '70 

Clark, M. C '75 

Cleveland, Miss E. A '73 

Coe,EliG '71 

Conklin, E. B '71 

fCook, Mrs. P '70 

Cook, Miss Hannah '73 

fCottle, Melville '69 

Crane,. Amanda '76 

Craven, Andrew F '74 

Crawford, Mrs. J. F '74 

Crawford T. O '75 

Crosette, F. M '76 

Cross, C. W '75 

Crowhurst, Wm '75 

Crowell, C. H '73 

Cummings, C. C '66 

D'Arcy, Miss M. E '72 

Davies, J. S '76 



Davis, Mrs. Imogene W '75 

Deane, Mrs. Margaret '71 

Deetkin, Mrs. Lizzie G '74 

Denman, James '66 

Dodge, W. C '74 

Dooner, John '75 

Drake, A. J '71 

Drake Chas. M '76 

Duane, Mrs. A. S '72 

DuBois, Mrs. A. E '68 

Dul3ois, J. B '76 

Dueukel, Wm '75 

Dwyer, James '75 

tEickhoff, J. Henry '73 

Farley, A.J '72 

Field, Miss Carrie P '75 

Finch, J. B '71 

Fink, Augusta P '75 

Fisk, Julia A '76 

Fitzgerald, A. L '71 

Foster, Mrs. J. A '73 

Foster, Mrs. Emily '74 

Fowler, Miss Laura T '68 

Freeman, G. N '75 

Fry,W.H '72 

fFullerA. L '69 

Furlong, George '76 

Gabriel, Mrs. C. E '74 

Garrison, Gazena A '76 

* Gates, Freeman '72 

Gorman, W. J '73 

Goodrich, A. H '68 

fGraf , Miss Minnie '72 

Grant, Miss Ella G '75 

Grant, Miss Helen A '75 

Gray, John C '69 

Greer, Miss Jane E '75 

Griffith, Mrs. Aurelia '71 

Gunn, MissS.M '75 

Gwinn, James M '71 

t Hamilton, Miss Addie '73 

f Hammond, Josiah Shaw. . . .'73 

Harlow, James '67 

fHart, W. C '73 

Hall, Frances M '76 

Hatch, J. L '75 

Hayes, John '76 

Henning, Irving P '75 

Herbst A '73 

Higby, H. C '75 

Hill, Miss A. H '73 

Hill, Whitman H '71 



PROFESSIONAL TEACHEES OF CALIFORNIA. 



193 



Hodgdon, Miss S.J '72 

Hoffman, Mrs. Mary L '73 

fHoitt, IraG '6G 

t Holbrook, T. W. J '66 

Holder, W. W '71 

f Holmes, Ahira 'QG 

fHolmes, Ellis H '66 

Houghton, Miss E. W '66 

Howe, H. H '68 

tHowe, J. M '67 

Howe, Converse '75 

Hucks, Annie E '75 

Hudson, J. A '73 

Humphrey, E. D '68 

Humphreys, Miss L. A '74 

Humphreys, Miss M. A '74 

Hunt, Miss Carrie L '70 

Hurley, Miss J. M. A '73 

Hutton, Chas. E '73 

Houghton, George E '76 

Itsell, A. J '74 

Jackman, Samuel H '70 

Jessup, Miss S. A '72 

Jewett, Annie S '76 

Jewett, Miss Susan N '72 

Johnson, J. AV '76 

Johns, Charles T '71 

Johnson, J. G '70 

Jones, George W '71 

Jones, Thornton J '75 

Keegon, Mary A '75 

Kelso, John E '76 

Kennedy, Kate '67 

Kennedy, J. G '71 

Kennedy, W. W '71 

Kercheval, Miss Jennie G. . . .'69 

Kincaid, Mrs. Mary W '76 

Kingman, Mrs. M. F '75 

Kinne, H. C '72 

Kirkpatrick, J. M '69 

Knowlton, Ebenezer '66 

Lamb, Miss Irene '73 

fLeadbetter, W. E '70 

t Leggett, Joseph '72 

t Leonard, T. C '66 

Levinson, Miss Eosa '72 

Levy, Daniel '73 

Lighthall, G. E '71 

Lillie, John B '75 

Lipowitz, Max '75 

fLittlefield, J. D '66 

Loomis, Miss Amanda '68 



Loudon, Jacques '76 

Lovett, C. M '75 

Lubeck, Mrs. Julia M '75 

Luckey, W. T '67 

Lynch, Miss Frances 'Q6 

Mack, George C '66 

Mackall, J. N '72 

t Makinney, H. E '68 

Mann, Azro L '67 

Manning, Miss Agnes M '73 

f Marks, Bernhard '66 

* Marriner, E. K '66 

Marsh, Mrs. S. W '71 

fMcBride, H. E '75 

McCarty, A. F '75 

McChesney, J. B '67 

McDonald, A. H '68 

McDonald, Mrs. A. H '75 

McDonald, W. P '75 

McFadden, Miss Agnes '75 

McFadden, W. M '71 

Menefee, C. A '71 

Metzger, C. L '75 

Middleton, Mrs. Eliza F '75 

Miller, Miss Ora E '73 

Millette, Percival C '71 

Milliken, Mrs. Ellen A '73 

McGlashan, C. F '76 

Mumford, Mrs. M. E '76 

Minns, George W '66 

Moore, John A '71 

Morgan, Mrs. L. A '72 

-; Morrill, Joseph C '67 

Morris, George F '67 

Morris, N.Z '73 

*Morse, Augustus, Jr '67 

Murphy, Miss Mary M '75 

Myrick, Thomas S 'G6 

Moore, Mrs. Mary B '75 

Mayborn, Mrs. M. J '76 

McKenzie, Margaret '76 

McCormick, Harriet '76 

Nelson, Henry A '71 

Nicholson, Thomas '74 

fNutting, H. N '66 

O'Connor, Joseph '71 

OlingerA.F '72 

Otis, James '73 

fOverend, Miss Lizzie '73 

Oliner, A. W '76 

O'Conner, Maria E '76 



194 



PKOFESSIONAL TEACHERS OF CALIFORNIA. 



fParker, Miss Jean '71 

Pascoe, Miss Mary I '72 

fPearson, Daua C '75 

Peck, George H '75 

fPelton, John C '66 

fPeuwell, S. A '68 

Phelps, Mrs. M. W '74 

Potter, M.B '71 

Powell, Miss Elizabeth '75 

Power, Frank '71 

Prescott, MissD. S '71 

Preston, E. M '69 

fPrice, Caroline '67 

Prior, PhiliiD '71 

Putman, J. E '75 

Eandall, A. H '68 

Rattan, Volney '74 

Redway, J. W '76 

Eeed, L. W '70 

Reynolds, Mrs. F. E. '72 

Rogers, James '76 

•Rose, T. H '68 

Rousseau, E '69 

Rowe, Miss A. A '73 

fRowell, W. K '6G 

Ryder, Miss L. E '76 

Salisbury, Mary A '76 

Sanders, W. A '69 

Sankey, M. J '75 

Schellhous, E. J '69 

Seawell, J. H '76 

Shaw, Miss E. A '72 

Shearer, S. M '72 

Shearer, Mrs. CO '73 

Sherman, E.B '76 

Sherman, Fannie M '75 

Shipley, J. C '73 

Short, Miss Julia B '75 

Sibley, J. M '66 

fSimon, Miss Frances '72 

Simonton, George W 'GG 

Slavan, Miss A. E '72 

Sollinger, J. A '76 

Smith, Miss Annie '68 

Smith, Miss Carrie L '72 

Smith, Chas. S '76 

Smith, Miss Jessie '72 

Smith, W. A. C '68 

Smith, Miss Jennie '74 

Southworth, Mrs. E. A '68 

Standeford, Mrs. N. D '75 

Steel, Thomas H '75 

Stincen, Miss Alice M '73 



fStone, H.P '71 

Stone, D.:C '66 

fStone, Mrs. B. H '73 

Stowell, Fannie A '74 

Stowell, MissM. E '72 

Stowell, Miss P. M '72 

Stratton, James 'GG 

Sullivan, Miss Kate '72 

Sumner, J. H '73 

Swett, John '67 

fSwett, Mrs. Mary L '66 

fSwezey, S. I. C '67 

fTait, George '66 

t Taylor, Robert '66 

Temple, Miss Emma — 

Templeton, Miss L. S '72 

Templeton, M. L '67 

Thompson, Helen '72 

Thurber, A '71 

Thurston, E. T '69 

fTrafton, Dr. A '71 

Thurton, Sarah L '75 

Todd, H. J '76 

Towle, C. B '76 

f UiDham, Isaac '69 

Walsh, Miss Nellie E '75 

Warren, C.G '69 

Warren, R.B '70 

Waterman, S. D '71 

Watson, Mrs. C. R '72 

Watson, Miss Mary J '72 

Watkins, Emory '75 

Watson, B. J '75 

Watson, Miss Lizzie J '74 

Weir, Miss Sarah J '68 

Wells, Mrs. Laura H '71 

Wermuth, Hamilton '71 

Wheelock, Mrs. D. B '73 

White, Silas A '71 

White, T. B '72 

AVhite, William '68 

White, Miss Louisa E '75 

Williams, W. J. G '69 

Wilson, H. R '71 

Wilson, Jas.K '75 

Wood, Mrs. E. A '72 

Woodrufif, Miss Frances A ... '70 
Woodworth, Miss Janette E . . '75 
Woodworth, Mrs. A. W. . . . • '75 

Wright, Mrs. A. E '76 

Westby, MissS. M '76 

Wade, Margaret '76 

Yates, W. A.. .. '74 



HOLDERS OF STATE EDUCxVTIONAL DIPLOMAS. 



195 



VIII. HOLDERS OF STATE EDUCATIONAL DIPLOMAS 



Note. — State diplomas are issued only to persons that bate been holders of First 
Grade Certificates for at least one year, and that have taught at least five years. 
* Deceased. t Not teaching. 



Abies, Thomas J. 
Adams, Clara A. 
Adams, W. J. 
Aldrich, Abbie F. 
Alderson, M. J. 
Alexander, Mary J. 
Ames, Martha. 
Anderson, C. A. 
Ashbrook. M. V. 
Ashbrook, T. P. 
Ashley, Ella E. 
Ashley, Julia V. 
Ashtou, Mrs. N. Jennie. 
Augustine, S. M. 
Ayers, Mary J. 
Babcock, William S. 
Baker, Samiiel D. 
Baldwin, F. D. 
Banks, Jerome. 
Barbour, Aaron C. 
Barthelow, Mrs. A. W. 
Beck, Mrs. N. B. 
Betancue, Lizzie. 
Biggs, Thomas. 
Bightmire, S. A. 
Bissell, Joseph. 
Bloomer, A. C 
Boardman, C. F. 
Bolton, H. 
Bonnard, Eureka A. 
Boyle, Sarah J. 
Boynton, Kate. 
Boynton, S. S. 
Bradshaw, W. E. 
Bragg, Mary J. 
Breschen, Seraphine. 
Brier, K. W. 
Brigham, Fannie E. 
Brigham, Julia P. 
Broadbent, E. 
Brooks, E. E, 
Brophy M. 
Brown, A. G. 
Brown, Chas. W. 
Brown, George J. 
Brown, J. B. 
Brown, Sarah E. 
Brumsley, M. I. 
Bryant, Annie. 
Buckman, F. S. S. 
Bunnell, Mrs. Alice. 
Bush, Mrs. E. A. 
Butterfield, S. H. 
Carr, Ezra S. 
Campbell, Amy T. 



Case, E. L. 
Castelhun, Mary A. 
*Chase, Carrie M. 
Chesnutwood, Mrs. J. A. 
Ciprico, Anita C. 
Clark, W. J. 
Clay, William T. 
Colby, Julia E. 
Cougdon, Jas. S. 
Connolly, J. J. 
Conrad, C. C. 
Cooper, Mrs. F. A. 
Cory, A. A. 
Coulter, Leonard. 
Crane, Amanda. 
Crane, George. 
Crawford, T. 0. 
Crichton, Mrs. A. M. 
Crocker, L. H. 
Cross, C. W. 
Crothers, Margaret I, 
Culbertson, Mary K. 
Curragh, J. M. 
Daniels, Mrs. S. B. 
Davidson, Mrs. Nannie S. 
Davis, Mrs. Imogene. 
Davis, J. T. 
t Davis, Sadie. 
DeNure, D. D. 
Dixon, Bessie. 
DoUiver, Clara G. 
Doouer, John. 
Doyle, L-ene. 
Doyle, Mrs. James A. 
Dozier, A. W. 
Dozier, Melville. 
Drake, Charles M. 
Drake, Elmer. 
DuBois, John B. 
Dunbar, Annie S. 
Dunbar, S. G. S. 
Dwyer, James W. 
Edwards, W. H. 
Elliott, Ella J. 
Elliott, Mary E. 
ElUs, Mary C. 
Estabrook, Mary A. H. 
Evans, Ellen A. 
Evans, Ellen G. 
Fairchild, Hattie M. 
Fallon, Joseph K. 
Feller, Lorenzo. 
Fenton, H. W. 
Fisk, Juliet A. 
Flint, Almira T. 



Floyd, Enos F. 
Folger, H. C. 
Fonda, Charles E. 
Foss, B. R. 
Foss, Wm. F. F. 
Foster, Mrs. Julia. 
Fowler, B. F. 
Fox, John. 
Frissell, Sarah E. 
Furlong, Robert. 
Gabriel, Mrs. C. E. 
Garlick, J, P. 
Garrison, Gazena A. 
Geer, Emily F. 
Geis, S. W. 
Germain, Clara. 
Goepp, G. 
Godfrey, G. K. 
Gordon, Wellington. 
Gould, M. J. 
Granger, F. C. 
Grant, E. 
Gray, Annie L. 
Greer, C. E. 
Giiun, E. L. 
Gunn, Sarah W. 
Guthrie, N. L. 
Goodcell, Henry, Jr. 
Garin, Paul A. 
Greer, Mary D. 
Haislip, Benjamin F. 
Hall, Annie J, 
Hall, F. M. 
Hall, Maggie J. 
Ham, Charles H. 
Hayburn, Annie T. 
Hamilton, Hiram M. 
Hamilton, llev. Hiram. 
Hamilton, Mrs. W. H. H. 
Hamilton, James T. 
Hamill, Amelia. 
Harkness, Margaret. 
Hartmeyer, Mrs. S. L. 
Harvey, Oliver T. 
Havens, Carrie. 
Hawks, Carrie M. 
Hawkins, J. O. 
Hazen,' J. P. 
Heckman, H. H. 
Henning, Irving P. 
Hewett, Roscoe. 
Hiatt, Pleasant. 
Higby, H. C. 
Hinton, J. M. 
Hofi'man, Mrs. Mary L. 



196 



HOLDEES OP STATE EDUCATIONAL DIPLOMAS. 



Horton, Geo. Wallace. 
Holbrook, Edw. 
Holmes, M. D, 
Howard, Emma. 
Howe, Converse, 
Howe, E. P. 
Howell, S. S. 
Hubbell, S. C. 
Hughes, A. B. 
Humphreys, L. A. 
Humphreys, M. A. 
Hunt, B. E. 

Huntsinger, Mrs. Jennie. 
*Irigraham, Mrs. E. F. 
Jacks, Fannie. 
Jamison, J. H. S. 
Janes, Emma. 
Jaycoax, Mrs. A. S. 
Jenks, David W. 
Jewett, Annie S. 
Jewett, Fidelia. 
Johnson, G. N. 
Johnson, G. W. 
Johnson, Joseph W. 
Jones, Addison. 
Jordon, John F. 
Jordan, Maggie L. 
Kane, Richard. 
Keegau, Mary A. 
Kellogg, M. i). 
Kelso, John E. 
Kelton, Mrs. Mary A. 
Kendall, Sylvia A. 
Kennedy, J. F. 
Kenuiston, Chas. M. 
Kerr, Theodore T. 
Kimball, C. A. 
King, Charles E. 
King, E. M. 
Kingman, Mrs. M. V. 
Kinkade, Letitia. 
Klink, John F. 
Knighton, William A. 
Knowlton, E. L. 
Kottinger, H. M. 
Kratzer, Leila. 
Lafferty, I. N. 
Lambert, Daniel. 
Lander, F. L. 
Langan, George. 
Laurie, B. M. 
Law, John K . 
Leach, Miss Mira. 
Libby, Mrs. Joseph S. 
Lighte, Pauline S. 
Lillie, Sarah P. 
Lippowitz, Max. 
Little, Mary. 
Loag, Emily T. 
Lloyd, Mary A. 
Loofbourrow, Elias. 
Lovett, Charles E. 
Lynch, Miss Tillie S. 
Lynch, W. F. B. 
Lyser, Albert. 



Magoon, Wm. H. 
Martin, A. 
Martin, E. J. 
Martin, James M. 
Marvin, A. 
Mathews, Mrs. M. E. 
McArthur, Annie. 
McCarty, Thomas. 
McColgan, Kate F. 
McCormack, Harriet T. 
McDonald, Mrs. N. R. 
McDonald, W. P. 
McDonald, Kate. 
McDonald, J. J. 
McDonall, Mrs. J. 
McEweu, John. 
McFadden, John. 
McGowan, Patrick H. 
McHugh, Peter. 
McKean, Lottie. 
McKusick, H. P. 
McManus, A. C. 
McPhee, V. J. 
McReynolds, Jos. 
Mea, John P. 
t Meagher, John F. 
Merrill, Ida M. 
Merritt, Julia E. 
Metzger, C. L. 
Michener, Mrs. M. E. 
Middleton, A. W. 
Middleton, Mrs. Eliza F. 
Miles, Mrs. R. S. 
Miller, John. 
Miller, Lafayette. 
Miller, N. J. 
Miller, John H. 
Milliken, Mrs. E. A. 
Minta, Wesley. 
Mitchell, Fannie. 
Mondram, F. V. C. 
Montgomery, A. S. 
Moore, Mrs. B. F. 
Morford, N. A. 
Morgan, Richard. 
Morgan, Eose E. 
Mullens, H. 
Mi^mford, Mrs.M. E. 
Muruan, John T. 
Murphy, Mary. 
Norman, L. F. 
Norvell, Jos. A. 
Neill, M. A. O. 
O'Connor, Maria. 
O'Laughlen, Mrs. Nellie. 
Oliver, A. W. 
Oliver, Mrs. C. F. 
Oliver, J. C. 
Ormstrong, Flora S. 
Otis, C. W. 
Overend, E. 
Owen, Georgie. 
Owens, Nellie M. 
Page, Lizzie. 
Palmer, E. M. 



Parker, Flora A. 
Parker, James L. 
Peachy, Thomas G. 
Peadry, Frank A. 
Pearce, Carrie. 
Peck, A. W. 
Pedler, F. A. 
Pendegast, H. B. 
*Penwell, Mrs. L. M. 
Pitcher, Charlotte M. 
Powell, David. 
Powell, Elizabeth. 
Powers, Talbot P. 
Prag, Mary 
Pratt, Mary E. 
Price, Harrison. 
Putnam, J. E. 
Eav, J. H. 
Rayl, Mrs. Martha. 
Reavis, Walter Scott. 
Eedway, Jacques W. 
Eenfro, Lewis C. 
Rice, L. 
Righter, F. M. 
Roberts, Lizzie. 
Robertson, William A. 
Robertson, George B. 
Robinson, Mrs. M. S. P. 
Rogers, Arthur. 
Rogers, James. 
Roper, J. W. 
Roy all, J. P. 
Ro'yce, Ella J. 
Ryan, Amanda. 
Ryder, L. E. 
Sankey, Mrs. Mary J. 
Saunders, Samiiel. 
Saxon, T. A. 
Sears, Marion. 
Seawell, J. H. 
Shaw, Annie J. 
Shearer, Mrs. C. C. 
Sherman, E. B. 
Sherman, Ella Imogene. 
Sherman, M. F. 
Sexton, Mrs. Ella M. 
Sickal, M. T. 
Sill, Prof. E. E. 
Sinex, Eev. J. H. 
Slack, Clay H. 
Smith, James D. 
Smith, Ausell. 
Smith, Grace. 
Smith, James D. 
SoUinger, J. A. 
Soule, Maria L. 
Southeimer, Jno. J. 
Spring, Mrs. Fannie. 
Squires, W. E. 
Standish, H. M. 
Standeford, N. D. 
Stegman, Mattie A. 
Stevenson, Helen E. 
Stincen, Emma E. C. 
Stoddard, C. W. 



NOTES OF PROMINENT TEACHERS. 



197 



stone, W. W. 

Stowell, F. A. 

Sturges S. 

Swaiu, Orlando E. 

Swan, Amanda. 

Taylor, Mrs. H. P 

Thomas, J. E. 

Thompson, Louisa 

Thomi^son, J. N. 

Tillotson, Henry Ira 

Todd, H. J. 

Towle, Mrs. Lizzie B. 

Towle, S. G. 

Trout, Daniel H. 

True, Charles F. 

Turner, H. F. 

Underwood, J. G. 

Van Lorn, V. J. 

Van Schaick, Mrs. Mary A 



Vestal, F. A. 
Walbridge, Jennie M. 
Waldron, S. A. 
Walker, Alice 
Walker, Charles H. 
Wallace, Alma 
Wallace, W. B. 
Walter, Emelyn. 
tWanzer, Mrs. L. M. F. 
Ward, Mary A. 
Webb, SaUie B. 
Weeks, M. D. 
Wells, Addie H. 
Wells, Jos. H. 
Wenk, Kobert E. 
Westbay, L. M. 
Weston, Ada. 
Wheelock, Mrs. D. K. 
White, Emmons. 



White, Mrs. Sara. 
White, A. F. 
Whitmore, Ella L. 
Wicks, John T. 
Wideman, James 
Wilson, H. C. 
Wood, Jessie. 
Wood, Mrs. N. A. 
Woodward,Mrs. N. Zoraida. 
Wooll, Hattie. 
Wozencraft, W. R. 
Wright, Mrs. E, 
Wright, J. M. 
Wythe, Sarah J. 
Yates, Lizzie. 
Young, Nestor A. 
Yule, John. 
Zimmerman, William. 
Tyrus, Mary A. 



IX. NOTES OF PROMINENT TEACHERS. 



D. C. Stone taught in Marysville, from 1854 to '68, and organ- 
ized there one of the best schools in the State. In 1868, he 
removed to Oakland, and established a "Family School." In 
1873, he was appointed teacher of natural sciences in the San 
Francisco Girls' High School, and, in 1876, was made Deputy 
City Superintendent. 

J. B. McChesney began teaching at Forbestown, 1857, but 
soon removed to Nevada City, where he organized first a 
Grammar School and then a High School. In 1865, he was 
made Principal of the Oakland High School, where he is still 
teaching. 

■^Freeman Gates was a pioneer in the schools of San Jose, 
and afterwards County Superintendent. He subsequently 
founded the San Jose Institute. 

Joseph Leggett founded the Grass Valley High School, with 
brilliant success; studied law; removed to San Francisco; was 
made Examining Teacher, in 1872 ; Deputy City Superintendent, 
1874 and 1875; and a lawyer in 1876. 

Melville Cottle was a pioneer teacher in Stockton, and was 
four years County Superintendent of San Joaquin County. 

Isaac Upham taught in Butte County for several years ; 
organized a fine school at Oroville, and was subsequently an 



198 NOTES OF PROMINENT TEACHERS. 

able Couuty Superintendent of Butte County and of Yuba 
County. 

George H. Peck taught the first Public School in Sacra- 
mento, 1854; taught in San Francisco, from 1860 to 1865; and 
was County Superintendent of Los Angeles, in 1874-75. 

^Augustus Morse, Jr., was a teacher at Martinez; afterwards 
Principal of the Grass Valley High School, and then County 
Superintendent of Nevada County. 

A. H. Kandall organized the Stockton High School, which 
he has made one of the most thorough in the State. 

A. H. Goodrich was a pioneer teacher in Placer County, 
where he held the office of County Superintendent for four 
years, and where he is still teaching. 

George W. Simonton taught for many years at Vallejo, and 
was for four years County Sui^erintendent of Solano County. 

Dr. E. J. Schellhouse has taught for twenty years in various 
counties in the State, and is well known as an enthusiastic 
lecturer. 

Dr. T. H. Rose taught several years at Benicia, made a fine 
Grammar School at Los Angeles, and organized a High 
School. 

J. M. Sibley, in 1854, founded the Folsom Grammar School, 
in which he taught for ten years. He subsequently taught at 
Oakland and Sonoma, and for the last ten years has been teach- 
ing in the San Francisco Boys' High School. 

A. H. McDonald, Principal of the Sacramento Grammar 
School, has taught for many years in various parts of the 
State. 

F. M. Campbell began teaching near Vallejo; was for several 
years a popular teacher in the Brayton College School, and for 
six years has been the efficient City Superintendent of the 
Oakland Schools. 

George W. Bonnell was Principal of the Spring Valley 
School, San Francisco; was afterwards Principal of San Fran- 
cisco Latin School; and is now Professor of Latin and Greek 
in the State University. 

Professor Martin Kellogg was for several years Professor of 
Ancient Languages in the College of California, and has been 
from the beginning a Professor in the State University; he 
contributed some valuable articles to the Gali/ornia Teacher, 
and has frequently lectured at State institutes. 



NOTES OP PEOMINENT TEACHERS. 199 

W. C. Dodge, who began teaching in the State in 1854, has 
taught for many years in Alameda County. 

M. L. Templeton was Principal of the Sacramento High 
School, and afterwards of the Woodland Grammar School, in 
both of which he was eminently successful. 

B. J. Watson was for many years a prominent teacher in 
Nevada County, where he became County Superintendent. 

Alfred Thurber founded the Pacheco School, and has been 
for six years County Superintendent of Contra Costa. 

Sparrow Smith was for many years a teacher in Sacramento 
County, and also County Superintendent. 

George K. Godfrey was a pioneer in the northern counties 
of the State. He has served twelve years as Gounty Superin- 
tendent in Shasta and Siskiyou Counties. 

C. W. Childs was for several 3'ears a teacher in El Dorado 
County; he is now Principal of the Suisun School, and County 
Superintendent of Solano County. 

H. T. Batchelder has been a leading teacher in Butte County 
for many years, and also a County Superintendent. 

John Bagnall was for many years a teacher in various of the 
central counties, and was one term County Superintendent of 
Alpine County. He has been for several years in San Fran- 
cisco, noted for his success as a teacher in the evening school. 
Under disabilities, which would have discouraged most men, 
he has done vastly more in education than hundreds of other 
teachers who walk without crutches. 

Azro L. Mann taught for several years at Marysville, but 
has gained his reputation chiefly by his success as head of 
the classical department of the San Francisco Boys' High 
School. 

Mrs. Maria McGilvray, twenty-two years a teacher in 
various parts of the State, is still a vigorous and capable 
worker. 

Mrs. J. H. Nevins has been twenty-three years a teacher in 
the State, thirteen of which have been in San Francisco. 

James Stratton began teaching in the State in 1853; was 
several years Principal of the Washington School, San 
Francisco, and is now Principal of a Grammar School, in 
Oakland. 

Miss Mary A. Hoyt taught the first Grammar School in 



200 STATE EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY. 

Los Angeles, where she was for many years a successful 
educator. 

Percival C. Millette, a pioneer, was County Superintendent 
of Placer County in 1857, and has taught ever since in number- 
less county schools. 



X. STATE EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY. 



In his circular calling the State Teachers' Institute of 1863, 
Superintendent Swett thus alluded to the importance of a State 
Society : 

Educational conventions, in every part of our country, express a 
general desire for a distinct and definite recognition of the occupa- 
tion of teaching by forms equivalent to those now existing in law, 
medicine, and theology. It is true, there are many who make teach- 
ing a temporary occupation, a stepping-stone to other pursuits, and 
there is no objection to this when they are duly qualified for the 
noblest of human duties; but there is a large class, becoming larger 
every year, who desire to make it the occupation of a life — an occu- 
pation which calls for a range of acquirements and a height of quali- 
fications fully equal to that of the liberal professions. 

Why should not the pioneer teachers of this State, in the next In- 
stitute, take similar measures of self -organization, self -recognition, 
and self-examination, and raise themselves above the humiliating 
necessity of submitting to an examination by members of other pro- 
fessions, or of no professions at all? A State Educational Society 
could be organized by those who shall pass the next examination by 
the State Board, those who hold dijilomas of graduation from 
normal schools, and the Professors in the various colleges and col- 
legiate schools of the State. This society could become legally 
incorporated at the next session of the Legislature, and other mem- 
bers could be admitted from time to time, by passing a regular 
examination, and receiving diplomas. Such certificates would soon 
be gladly recognized by unprofessional examiners — many of whom, 
though men of education, feel that they are not duly qualified to sit 
in judgment on the competency of teachers for their peculiar work 
— as the best possible assurance of fitness to teach. And teachers 
may rest assured that legislative enactments would soon follow, 
making such diplomas ^jri??ia /acre evidence of ability to teach in any 
part of the State, without further examination. 

Some such steps we are called upon to take by the large number 
of accomplished men and women who are entering on our vocation. 
We are called upon to act, not only in justice to scholarship and 
talent, but in self-defense against impostors and pretenders; and we 



STATE EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY. 201 

may honestly avow a desire to exclude all who unworthily or unfitly 
intrude themselves into the noble office of teaching. 

A State Society would unite the teachers of our State in the bonds 
of fraternal sympathy ; a certificate of membership would entitle the 
holder to the aid of members in all parts of the State; it would be a 
passport of employment when he should change his residence; it 
would entitle him to the substantial benefits of an honorable recep- 
tion among all teachers; and a small annual membership fee would 
soon constitute a fund for the establishment of a teacher's journal, 
as the organ of the society. 

The subject of a State professional society being brought 
before the Institute, the plan was advocated by John E. Ben- 
ton, Theodore Bradley, and others. 

A committee was appointed with Mr. Bradley, Chairman, who 
made a report, and requested all interested in forming such a 
society to meet after the final adjournment of the Institute. 

A State Educational Society was soon afterwards formed on the 
plan recommended, Avith the following constitution : 

PKEAMBLE. 

"We, as teachers of California, in order to further the educational 
interests of the State, to give efficiency to our school system, to 
furnish a practical basis for united action among those de- 
voted to the cause in which we are engaged, and for those pur- 
poses to elevate the office of teacher to its true rank among the 
professions, do hereby adopt the following 

CONSTITUTION. 

NAME. 

Section 1. This organization shall be known as the "California 
Educational Society." 

Sec. 2. All holders of State Life Diplomas, or State Educational 
Diplomas, shall be eligible to membership on the recommendation 
of the Executive Committee, and the payment, in advance, of an 
admission fee of five dollars. 

Sec. 3. Any member may be expelled for unprofessional conduct 
by a two-thirds vote of members present at any regular meeting; 
provided, that a coj^y of the charges be deposited with the Kecord- 
ing Secretary at least four weeks before the meeting at which the 
charges are acted upon, and immediate notice thereof be given to 
the accused. 

The society assumed the publication of the California TeacJier, 
and elected annually a Board of Editors, until 1873, when the 
control of the journal passed into the hands of the State Super- 
intendent. 

13 



■^>iv^ 



4'ftSI -^-■'^:^||P^KS OF THE STATE EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY. 



LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE STATE EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY. 



[Note. — The names of deceased members are marked 
the profession t.] 



of those retired from 



Anderson, J. W. 
Anderson, Mrs. A. B. 
Atwood, Mrs. C. L. 
Austin, Miss M. F. 
Allen, L. D. 
Adams, J. G. 
Bradl^■}^ Theodore. 
Bagnidl, John. 
Boiander, Henry N. 
Brown, George, 
t Brown, F. R. 
Bralv, J- H. 
Brodt, A. W. 
tBaker, G. F. 
Beanston, George. 
Bennette, Fannie E. 
Barre, Miss S. A. 
Bragg, Mary J. 
Baldwin, Nellie. 

tBrown, Louisa. 

+ Cottle, Melville. 
Cleveland, Miss E. A. 

Cook, Hannah. 

Denniau, James. 

*Deal, M. S. 

Dubois, Mrs. A. E. 

Deane, Mrs. Margaret. 

Dolliver, Clara J. 

Doud, Nettie. 

Deetken, Mrs. L. G. 

tFitzgerald, O. P. 

•t Flood, Noah F. 

Fuller, A.L. 

Finch, J. B. 

Farley, A. J. 

Fenton, H. W. 

Fitzgerald, A. L. 

Fink, Miss A. P. 

Field, Miss C. P. 



Fowler, Laura S. 
Goodrich, S. H. 
t Holmes, Ahira. 
tHolmes, Ellis H. 
Humphrey, E. D. 
Higbie, Alfred. 
tHuntlev, O. H. 
tHoitt, iraG. 
Howe, Converse. 
Hunt, Carrie L. 
Hucks, Annie. 
Johns, Chas. T. 
Kellogg, Martin. 
Knowlton, Ebenezer. 
Kennedy, W. W. 
Kennedy, J. G. 
Kennedy, Kate. 
Kincaid, Mary W. 
t Leonard, T. C. 
tLouttit, J. A. 
Lyst^r, Albert. 
Levison, llosa. 
Myrick, Thos. S. 
t Marks, Bernhard. 
McGlvnn, A. E. 
Makiuney, H. E. 
*Morris, Geo. F. 
McOhesney, J. B. 
tMcBride, H. E. 
Moore, John A. 
Nutting, H. N. 
Nicholson, Thomas. 
O'Connor, Joseph. 
Peck. Geo. H. 
tPelton, John C. 
Preston, E. M. 
tPenwell, S. A. 
Prior, Philip. 
Pascoe, Mary. 



+ Parker, Jean. 
Prescott, Miss D. S. 
tRowell, W. K. 
Kandall, Ambrose H. 
Eousseau, E. 
Rattan, Volney. 
tSwezey, S. I. C. 
Stratton, James. 
Swett, John. 
Smith, Sparrow A. 
Stone, D. C. 
Sibley, J. M. 
Schellhouse, E. J. 
Scott, M. M. 
Smith, Jessie. 
Smith, Jennie. 
Stowell, Miss M. E. 
Stowell, Miss P. M. 
Slaven, Miss A. E. 
Sullivan, Kate. 
Sumner, J. H. 
Stone, W. W. 
Smith, J.D. 
Shaw, Miss E. A. 
+ Tait, George. 
*Townsend, Dennis. 
Templeton, M. L. 
Thurston, E, T. 
Thompson, Helen. 
True, Chas. F. 
Upham, Isaac. 
"White, Silas A. 
White, William. 
Winn, A. T. 
Williams, W. J. G. 
Warren, R. B. 
Wermouth, Hamilton. 
Wade, Margaret. 
Zimmerman, Wm, 



PRESIDENTS OF THE STATE EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY. 



1. John Swett. 

2. George W. Minns. 

3. Theodore Bradley. 



4. James Denman. 

5. D. C. Stone. 

6. Bernhard Marks. 



7. John Swett. 

8. E. H. Holmes. 

9. J. W. Anderson. 



SECRETAEIES. 



1. Bernhard Marks. 

2. Silas A. White. 



Mrs. C. L. Atwood. 
Mrs. Aurelia Giiffith. 



STATE SERIES 0-F TEXT-BOOKS. 203 



XL STATE SERIES OF TEXT-BOOKS. 



In 1864, tlie State Board of Education, consisting of Gov- 
ernor Stanford, Surveyor-General Houghton, and State Super- 
intendent Swett, met and adopted a State series of text-books, 
taking the series recommended by vote of the State Teachers' 
Institute that met in San Francisco, May 7-10, 1863. 

BOOKS ADOPTED. 

Eaton's Series of Arithmetics; Quackeubos's English Grammar; 

Cornell's Primary Geography; Willson's Series of Readers; 

"Warren's Intermediate Geography; Willson's Speller; 

Greene's Introductory Grammar; Quackeubos's History of the U. S. 

In 1866, the Board, reorganized under the Kevised School 
Law, Governor Low, Chairman, met and readopted, for a 
term of four years, the list of 1864, with the exception of the 
geographies and Quackeubos's Grammars, which were indefi- 
nitely continued, but not readopted for four years. Clarke's 
Geography was also added to the list of geographies, and the 
Spencerian and Payson, Dunton & Scribner's Penmanship were 
continued in use. 

In 1869, the Board, Governor Haight, Chairman, Superin- 
tendent Fitzgerald, Secretary, adopted Monteith's Series of 
Geographies, in place of Cornell's, Warren's and Clarke's, and 
Brown's Grammars, in place of Greene's and Quackeubos's — the 
change to take effect July, 1870. 

In 1870, July 12-13, the State Board met, and, under the re- 
enacted California School I^aw, adopted the following 

STATE SERIES. 

McGuffey's Series of Readers; Willson's Spellers; 

Hobinson's Series of Arithmetics; Cutter's Physiologies; 

Monteith's Series of Geographies; Payson and Duuton's Penmanship. 
Brown's Series of Grammars; 

A year later, the Board added to this list Swinton's Con- 
densed History of the United States, and Swinton's Word 
Analysis. 

In 1874, June 22d, in compliance with a new section of the 
School Law, the Board passed a resolution inviting publishers 



204 STATE SEKIES OF TEXT-BOOKS. 

to lay before them, on or before January 5tb, 1875, proposals 
for supplying text-books for use in the public schools of the 
State. 

January 5th, 1875, the Board met — Governor Booth in the 
chair, and Superintendent Bolander, Secretary — considered the 
proposals received, and adopted the Pacific Coast Beaders, in 
place of McGuffey's; Cornell's Geographies, in place of Mon- 
teith's; Spencerian Penmanship, in place of Payson, Dunton & 
Scribner's; and readopted Robinson's Arithmetics and Cutter's 
First Book in Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene. The Board 
also recommended Swinton's Language Series for teachers and 
school libraries. 

On February 3d, 1876, a writ of certiorari was issued by the 
Sixth District Court, Sacramento, Judge Ramage, against the 
introduction of the new Readers. The case was carried to the 
Supreme Court, which, on April 19th, 1875, declared the action 
of the Board, in adopting the Pacific Coast Readers, null and 
void, on the ground that the record did not show that six 
months' notice of a proposed change in Readers had been given, 
as required by law. 

On June 1st, the Board again met, and advertised for pro- 
posals for all the books, it being considered that the ruling of 
the Supreme Court, on Readers, applied to all the books 
adopted at their former meeting. 

Dec. 5th, 1875, the Board again met, pursuant to advertise- 
ment, to adopt text-books, but were enjoined by Judge Bray- 
nard, County Judge of Tehama County, and Judge Reardon, 
District Judge of the Fourteenth District, "from receiving, 
opening, or acting in any manner upon proposals for supplying 
Readers and Geographies, or taking any action whereby any 
Readers other than McGuffey's, or any Geographies other than 
Monteith's, may be used in the public schools of this State." 
The Board being still free to act upon all other books, adopted 
Robinson's Arithmetic, Swinton's Word Analysis, Spencerian. 
Penmanship, Smith's Drawing, Mason's Music Reader's, and 
Cutter's First Book in Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene. 

In the case of Readers and Geographies, the Board post- 
poned action to Dec. 28th, the hearing of the injunctions being 
set respectively for Dec. 15th and Dec. 22d. Meanwhile, a bill 
was introduced into the Legislature, Dec. 9th, that the text- 



EDUCATION OF COLOEED CHILDREN. 205 

l)Ooks iu use in 1873-4-5, be continued in use in all tlie public 
■schools of tlie State, until otherwise provided by statute. 
This bill became a law on Dec. 13th, when the injunction suits 
were at once dismissed. 

As the case now stands, the old list of hohks throughout 
remains in the schools, and all power of changing is vested in 
the State Legislature. 



XII. EDUCATION OF COLORED CHILDREN. 



The Legislature of 1860 passed a law prohibiting colored 
(Negro aud Mongolian) children from being admitted to 
schools for white children, under penalty of forfeiting all 
public moneys. 

Previous to this, colored children were prohibited from 
attending schools for w^hite children, but there was no penalty. 
The law had alloived trustees to establish separate schools for 
colored children, but had not required it. 

The first legal recognition of the rights of colored children is 
found in the Kevised School Law, 1866 : 

Sec. 57. Children of African or Mongolian descent, and Indian 
.children, not living under the care of white persons, shall not be 
admitted into the public schools, except as provided in this act; 
provided, that, upon the written application of the parents or guar- 
dians of at least ten such children, to any Board of Trustees, or 
Board of Education, a separate school shall be established for their 
education, and the education of a less number may be provided for 
by the trustees in any other manner. 

Sec. 58. When there shall be in any district any number of chil- 
dren, other than white children, whose education can be provided 
for in no other way, the trustees, by a majority vote, may permit 
such children to attend schools for white children; provided, that a 
majority of the parents of the children attending such school make 
no objection in writing, to be filed with the Board of Trustees. 

Sec 59. The same laws, rules, and regulations which apply to 
schools for white children shall apply to schools for colored 
children. 

Under this qualified provision, most of the colored children 
in the State were admitted to school privileges, though in a few 
outlying districts — notably the city of Oakland — they were ex- 



->*^-.. 



206 COUKSE OF STUDY IN DISTRICT SCHOOLS. 

eluded from white schools, and were not allowed a separate 
school. 

The Legislature of 1870 repealed Section 58, and left the 
colored question as follows : 

Sec. 56. The education of children of African descent, and Indian 
children, shall be provided for in sej^arate schools. Upon the 
written application of the parents or guardians of at least ten such 
children, to any Board of Trustees or Board of Education, a separate 
school shall be established for the education of such children; and 
the education of a less number may be jjrovided for by the trustees, 
in separate schools, in any other manner. 

In 1872, the Code Commissioners modified the law, under 
a decision of the Supreme Court, and the Legislature adopted 
it as follows : 

Seo. 1669. The education of children of African descent, and 
Indian children, must be provided for in sejDarate schools; provided, 
that if the directors or ti'ustees fail to provide such separate schools, 
then such children must be admitted into the schools for white 
children. 

In 1872, the Board of Education of Oakland admitted their 
eight colored children into the schools; and, in 1875, the San 
Francisco Board abolished the separate school of seventy-five 
colored children, and admitted the pupils to the white schools. 



XIII. COURSE OF STUDY IN DISTRICT SCHOOLS. 



The School Law of 1863-4 specified the studies to be pursued 
in the schools as follows : Arithmetic, Geography, Grammar, 
Reading, Writing, Spelling, History of the United States, 
Physiology, and such other studies as trustees might deem 
advisable. 

The first "Course of Study for District Schools " was pre- 
pared by Superintendent Swett, and adopted by the State 
Board, June 8, 1866. At the same meeting, rules and regula- 
tions were also adopted. 

This " Course of Study" was revised by the State Board in 
1870, and again revised by Superintendent Bolander, and 
adopted by the Board in 1872. 



COURSE OF STUDY IN DISTRICT SCHOOLS. 207 

In 1872, Drawhig and Music were added to the list of regular 
scliool studies. 

RULES AND REGULATIONS, 1866. 

Section 1. Teachers are required to be present at their respective 
schoolrooms, and to open them for the admission of pupils at fifteen 
minutes before the time prescribed for commencing school, and to 
punctually observe the hours for opening and closing school. 

Sec. 2. Unless otherwise provided by special action of trustees, 
or Boards of Education, the daily school sessions shall commence at 
nine o'clock a. m., and close at four o'clock p. m., Avith an intermis- 
sion at noon of one hour, from twelve m. to one p. m. There shall 
be allowed a recess of twenty minutes in the forenoon session, from 
ten-forty to eleven o'clock, and a recess of twenty minutes in the 
afternoon session, from two-forty to three o'clock. When boys and 
girls are allowed separate recesses, fifteen minutes shall be allowed 
for each recess. 

Sec. 3. In graded primary schools in which the average age of 
the pupils is under eight years, the daily sessions shall not exceed 
four hours a day, inclusive of the intermission at noon, and inclu- 
sive of the recesses. If such schools are opened at nine o'clock 
A.M., they shall be closed at two o'clock, p.m. In ungraded schools, 
all children under eight years of age shall either be dismissed after 
a four hours' session, or allowed recesses for play of such length 
that the actual confinement in the schoolroom shall not exceed three 
hours and a half. 

Sec. 4. No pupil shall be detained in school during the intermis- 
sion at noon, and a pupil detained at any recess shall be permitted 
to go out immediately thereafter. All pupils, except those detained 
for punishment, shall be required to pass out of the schoolrooms at 
recess, unless it would occasion an exposure of health. 

Sec. 5 . Principals shall be held responsible for the general man- 
agement and discipline of schools; and the other teachers shall fol- 
low their directions and co-oj)erate with them, not only during the 
school hours, but during the time when the pujDils are on the school 
premises, before and after school, and during recesses. Assistants 
shall be held responsible for the order and discipline of their own 
rooms, under the general direction of the Principals. 

Sec. 6. Teachers are particularly enjoined to devote their time 
faithfully to a vigilant and watchful care over the conduct and hab- 
its of the pupils during the time for relaxation and play, before and 
after school, and during the recesses, both in the school buildings 
and on the playgrounds. 

Sec, 7, It is expected that teachers will exercise a general inspec- 
tion over the conduct of scholars going to and returning from school. 
They shall exert their influence to prevent all quarreling and dis- 
agreement, all rude and noisy behavior in the street, all vulgar and 
profane language, all improper games, and all disrespect to citizens 
and strangers. 

Sec. 8. Teachers shall prescribe such rules for the use of the 
yards, basements, and outbuildings connected with the schoolhouse, 
as shall insure their being kept in a neat and proper condition, and 



208 COURSE OF STUDY IN DISTRICT SCHOOLS. 

shall examine them as often as may be necessary for such purpose. 
Teachers shall be held responsible for any want of neatness or clean- 
liness about their school premises. 

Sec. 9. Teachers shall give vigilant attention to the ventilation and 
temperature of their schoolrooms. At each recess the windows and 
doors shall be opened for the purpose of changing the atmosphere of 
the room. Teachers are cautioned against hot fires and a high 
temperature. 

Sec. 10. Teachers shall enter in the school registers, in the order 
of their application, the names of all those applying for admission 
to the school, after the prescribed number of pupils have been 
received. Such applicants shall be admitted to seats whenever a 
vacancy occurs in any class for which they have been found duly 
qualified, in the order of their registration. 

Sec 11. Teachers are authorized to require excuses from the 
parents or guardians of pupils, either in person or by written note, 
in all cases of absence or tardiness, or of dismissal before the close 
of school. 

Sec. 12. No pupil shall be allowed to retain connection with any 
l^ublic school unless furnished with books, slate, and other utensils 
required to be used in the class to which he belongs; provided, that 
no pupil shall be excluded for such cause, unless the parent or 
guardian shall have been furnished by the teacher with a list of 
books, or articles needed, and one week shall have elapsed after 
such notice without the pupil's obtaining said books. Books may 
be furnished to indigent 'children by the trustees, at the expense of 
the district, whenever the teacher shall have certified in writing that 
the pupil applying is unable to purchase such books. 

Sec. 13. Any puj^il who shall in any way cut or otherwise injure 
any schoolhouse, or injure any fences, trees, or outbuildings, belong- 
ing to any of the school estates, or shall write any profane or obscene 
language, or make any obscene characters or pictures on any school 
premises, shall be liable to suspension , expulsion , or other punishment, 
according to the nature of the oiTense. The teacher may suspend a 
pujpil temporarily for such offense, and shall notify the trustees of such 
action. Pupils shall not be allowed to remain in any of the rooms that 
are provided with improved styles of furniture, except in the presence 
of a teacher or a monitor, who is made specially responsible for the care 
of the seats and desks. All damages done to school jDroperty by any 
of the pupils shall be repaired at the expense of the party commit- 
ting the trespass. 

Sec. 14. AH pupils who go to school without proper attention 
having been given to personal cleanliness, or neatness of dress, shall 
be seut home to be properly prepared for school, or shall be required 
to prepare themselves for the schoolroom before entering. Every 
schoolroom shall be provided with a wash-basin, soap, and towels. 

Sec 15. No pupils affected with any contagious disease shall be 
allowed to remain in any of the 2:)ublic schools. 

Sec 16. The books used, and the studies j^ursued, shall be such, 
and such only, as may be authorized by the State Board of Educa- 
tion; and no teacher shall require or advise any of the pupils to 



COURSE OF STUDY IN DISTRICT SCHOOLS. 209 

purchase, for use in the schools, any book not contained in the list 
of books directed and authorized to be used in the schools. 

Sec. 17. It shall be the duty of the teachers of the schools to read 
to the pupils, from time to time, so much of the school regulations 
as ajiply to them, that they may have a clear un'derstanding' of the 
rules by which they are governed. 

Sec 18. In all primary schools, exercises in free gymnastics, and 
vocal and breathing exercises, shall be given at least twice a day, 
and for a time not less than five minutes for each exercise. 

Sec. 19. The following supplies shall be provided by the District 
Clerk, under the provisions of section forty-six of the Kevised School 
Law, on the written requisition of the teacher, viz: clocks, brooms, 
dusting-brushes, wash-basins, water -buckets, tin cups, dust-pans, 
matches, ink, ink-bottles, pens, penholders, slate pencils, crayon 
chalk, hand-bells, coal-buckets or wood-boxes, shovels, pokers, soap, 
towels, thermometers, door-mats, scrapers, and stationery. 

Sec. 20. Trustees are authorized and recommended to employ a 
suitable person to sweep and take care of the schoolhouse, and to 
make suitable provision for supplying the school with water. 

BULKS FOR PUPILS. 

1. Every pupil is expected to attend school punctually and regu- 
larly; to conform to the regulations of the school, and to obey 
promptly all the directions of the teacher; to observe good order, 
and propriety of deportment; to be diligent in study, respectful to 
teachers, and kind and obliging to schoolmates; to refrain entirely 
from the use of profane and vulgar language, and to be clean and 
neat in j^erson and clothing. 

2. Pupils are required, in all cases of absence, to bring, on their 
return to school, an excuse in writing, from their parents or guard- 
ians, assigning good and sufficient reasons for such absence. 

3. All pupils who have fallen behind their grade, by absence or 
irregularity of attendance, by indolence or inattention, shall be 
placed in the grade below, at the discretion of the teacher. 

4. No pupil shall be permitted to leave school at recess, or at any 
other time before the regular hour for closing school, except in case 
of sickness; or on written request of parent or guardian. 

5. Any scholar who shall be absent one week, without giving 
notice to the teacher, shall lose all claim to his particular desk for 
the remainder of the term, and shall not be considered a member of 
the school. 

6. Each scholar shall have a particular desk, and shall keep the 
same, and the floor beneath, in a neat and orderl}^ condition. 

INSTRUCTIONS TO TEACHERS. 

1. Teachers will endeavor to make themselves acquainted with 
parents and guardians, in order to secure their aid and co-operation, 
and to better understand the temperaments, characteristics, and 
wants of the children. 

2. Teachers shall dailj' examine the lessons of their various classes, 
and make such special prej^aration upon them, if necessaiy, as not 
to be constantly confined to the text-book, and instruct all their 



210 THE CALIFORNIA TEACHER. 

pupils, witliout partiality, in those brauclies of school studies which 
their various classes may be pursuing. In all their intercourse witk 
their scholars, they are required to strive to impress on their minds, 
both by precept and example, the great importance of continued 
efforts for improvement in morals, and manners, and deportment, as 
well as in useful learning. 

3. Teachers should explain each new lesson assigned, if necessary^ 
by familiar remarks and illustrations, that every puj^il may know^ 
before he is sent to his seat, what he is exjoected to do at the next 
recitation, and how it is to be done. 

4. Teachers should only use the text-book for occasional refer- 
ence, and should not permit it to be taken to the recitation, to be 
referred to by the pupils, except in case of such exercises as abso- 
lutely require it. They should assign many questions of their own 
preparing, involving an application of what the pupils have learned, 
to the business of life. 

5. Teachers should endeavor to arouse and fix the attention of the 
whole class, and to occupy and bring into action as many of the 
faculties of their pupils as possible. They should never proceed 
with the recitation without the attention of the whole class, nor go 
round the class with recitation always in the same order, or in regu- 
lar rotation. 

6. Teachers should at all times exhibit proper animation them- 
selves, manifesting a lively interest in the subject taught, avoid all 
heavy, plodding movements, all formal routine in teaching, lest the 
pupil be dull and drowsy, and imbibe the notion he studies only to 
recite. 



XIV. THE CALIFORNIA TEACHER. 



At the State Teachers' Institute, May, 1863, it was voted to 
begin the publication of a monthly educational journal. 

John Swett and Samuel I. C. Swezey were elected managing 
editors, and the first number of the California Teacher was issued 
July, 1863. 

At the succeeding session of the Legislature, 1863-4, a law 
was passed, authorizing county superintendents to subscribe for 
a number of copies, at $1 a copy, to supply each Board of 
School Trustees with one copy. 

In 1864-5, a provision was made in the Eevised School Law, 
authorizing the State Board of Education to subscribe for a 
number of copies, sufficient to supply the clerk of each board 
of trustees, and each school library, with a copy of some edu- 



THE CALIFOENIA TEACHER. 211 

cational journal, the subscription payable out of the State 
School Fund. 

This provision placed the journal on a paying basis. 

After the first year, the State Educational Society assumed 
the control of the Teacher, electing its editors annually. By 
the Eevised School Law of 1865, the State Superintendent was 
made, ex-officio, one of the editors. Messrs. Swezey and Swett 
continued to edit the journal until July, 1868. 

At the end of this time, Mr. Swezey made the following 
report : 

Office of "The Califoenia Teacher," 

302 MONTGOMEEY StKEET, 

San Feancisco, June 17, 1868. 
To THE California Educational Society. 

Gentlemen: The undersigned, as acting publisher of the Califor- 
nia Teacher, desires to present the following f^cts for your in- 
formation : 

1. The California Teacher was established at the State Institute, 
held in May, 1863, at the same time that your society was formally 
organized; since which time you have been recognized as the proper 
representative of the teachers' jDrofession in this State. The Insti- 
tute elected John Swett, Geo. Tait, Geo. W. Minns, and the 
undersigned, as resident editors; and, owing to the pressure of 
engagements ujDon the gentlemen named, the publishing duties were 
devolved upon the undersigned, who has continued to perform those 
duties through the entire five years, closing with the number for 
June, 1868. 

At the close of the first volume, the authority of your society was 
editorially recognized in the following terms: " The Teacher will be 
guided by the wise hand of the California Educational Society, to 
which, indeed, we have hitherto looked, as the representative of the 
teachers in the State. What that society says in regard to editors, 
will be regarded as law; and whenever it desires a change, the res- 
ident editors of the first volume will rejoice in their relief from 
responsibility of no small magnitude, while they give a cheerful 
hand to their successors in ofiice." {California Teacher, vol. 1, 
p. 310.) 

On the 18th of June, 1864, your Society unanimously and for- 
mally consented to assume the responsibility of the publication, 
and thereupon unanimously elected as resident editors, John Swett, 
George Tait, and the undersigned. {California Teacher, vol. 2, 
p. 23.) 

On the 5th of June, 1865, your Society elected John Swett, John 
C. Pelton, and the undersigned, as resident editors for the ensuing 
year. {California Teacher, vol. 3, p. 54.) Since that time there 
seems to have been no formal action taken upon this subject, 
though the principle has been regarded as settled that the State 
Superintendent and the City Superintendent of San Francisco 
should always be among the resident editors. 



212 THE CALIFORNIA TEACHER. 

^ 2. Under Section 84 of the Eevised School Law, the State Board 
of Education, on the 13th of Aj)ril, 1866, unanimously designated 
this journal as the official organ of education in this State. (Cali- 
fornia Teacher, vol. 3, p. 298.) And since that time the expenses 
of jDublishing the Teacher have been mainly met by the proceeds of 
the State siabscription. This was to be expected. The proportion 
of teachers in any State who pay for an educational journal which 
they can read without paying for, is very small; and since the Teacher 
has been sent to every district, comparatively' few private subscrip- 
tions have been received. The amount received at this date for 
subscriptions to vol. 6, commencing with the number for July, is 
$48,60. 

3. As a matter of fact, the entii-e labor of conducting the Teacher 
has been performed by Mr. Swett and the undersigned [Mr. 
Swezey]. The two have acted in harmony, and have exercised a 
mutual supervision over each other. Any article or paragraph to 
which either has objected has been suppressed. The Department 
of Public Instruction in the Teacher, however, was under the exclu- 
sive control of Mr. Swett during his administration; while, as a 
general rule, the book notices were the special department of the 
undersigned, who has also attended to the proof reading, mailing, 
accounts, and business correspondence. The receipts of the first 
two years did not equal the cost of printing. The third year, the 
receipts and expenses were about equal. During the fourth and 
fifth years, the receipts have so far exceeded the exj^enses as to 
enable the undersigned to dejDute to other hands the actual drudg- 
ery of mailing; and at the end of the whole term, the two working 
resident editors are able to rejoice in the fact that they are neither 
material losers nor gainers pecuniarily in the conduct of their 
editorial experiments. Last year, the balance sufficed to meet a 
portion of the office rent of the undersigned, and to leave perhaps 
$25 per month to the editors, as compensation for the labor 
bestoAved. During the year now ending, the same result is prob- 
able, though, as the bills are not all settled, it is impracticable to 
speak jDOsitively on the subject. At the close of each volume, Mr. 
Swett and the undersigned have divided equally the profits or the 
losses of the year, and commenced the succeeding one with clear 
books, to stand or fall on its own merits. 

4. A grave practical question comes before your society to-day, 
arising from the following state of facts: 

UlDon the accession to office of the present State Superintendent, 
he assumed that, as a matter of course, the Teacher came under his 
personal and supreme control. 

In the view of the undersigned, however, the Teacher is to be con- 
ducted b}' persons designated by your society; and they are to act 
until their successors are appointed — the statute giving the State 
Superintendent, as such, absolute control over simply his own de- 
partment in the journal. 

The Superintendent was informed, therefore, of the time by which 
the printers were expected to receive the matter for each monthly 
issue; that whatever space he required for his department was always 
to be at his service; and that, to avoid any apjparent supervision of 



THE CALIFORNIA TEACHER. 213 

"what he sliould choose to insert, the printers would be instructed to 
return the proof-slips of his department direct to his office, so that 
the appointed editors Avould not know what he should j^rint, until 
they saw it in the completed journal. 

This seems to have been unsatisfactory to the Superintendent, and 
he declines to accept the proposition, or to use the Teacher as pro- 
vided by law. 

At the last meeting of the State Board of Education, the Super- 
intendent announced his intention, if the exclusive control of the 
Teacher should not be placed in his own hands, to commence the 
publication of an educational journal on his own account, which he 
should desire to have designated by the Board as the organ of the 
department. The Board so far deferred to his wishes as to formally 
rescind the designation of the California Teacher, and the matter 
was then left until after your present meeting should be held. 

Should you abandon the plan hitherto acted ujDon, and elect the 
State Superintendent as controlling editor, there is no doubt that 
his objections to the designation of the California Teacher will beat 
once withdrawn; and it seems to be equally certain that, should you 
continue the plan hitherto acted upon, it will rest with the State 
Board of Education, to make choice between the journal respon- 
sible to the profession, as teachers of the State, and a journal undei- 
the supreme control of the present State Superintendent, as editor 
and publisher. 

With the undersigned, as to the principle involved, there is no 
shadow of doubt. The example of all educational journals at the East, 
favors the plan heretofore acted upon, that the teachers, in their 
highest associated capacity, should name the editors, and the State 
Superintendent should have entire control, simjDly, of one depart- 
ment in the teachers' organ. 

As to the few hundred dollars that may be saved in the publica- 
tion of the California Teacher, each year, the undersigned, for him- 
self (and, as he thinks, for Mr. Swett), is decided in the wish, that 
any other persons who think the amount received will properly pay 
for the responsibility attached, should be elected by your society to 
the editorial office. 

All which is respectfully submitted. 

Samuel I. C. Swezey. 

In July, 1868, State Superintendent Fitzgerald and A. L. 
Fitzgerald were elected editors. 

In 1872, the State Society elected John Swett, associate ed- 
itor, with State Supt. Bolander; and, in the year following, the 
journal was taken out of the hands of the State Society, and its 
entire control was assumed by Supt. Bolander. 

At this time, the State subscription amounted to $4,000 a 
year. 

In 1876, the Legislature cut oflf the State subscription, which 
ended the publication of the California Teacher. 



214 



THE CALIFOBNIA TEACHER. 



THE PIONEER JOURNAL, 



The first educational journal publislied in tliis State was The 
Bookseller, published in 1860, by H. H. Bancroft & Co., and 
edited by John Swett. It maintained a lingering existence of a 
year, and then died of starvation. 

It contained two fine articles by Starr King, one by Dr. Tut- 
hill, and other able papers. 



CONTRIBUTORS TO THE TEACHER. 



The following list includes most of the teachers who were 
contributors to the State educational journal: 



George W. Minns, 
Mrs. Jennie C. Carr, 
E. R. iSill, 
Bernhard Marks, 
Clara J. Dolliver, 
John S. Hittell, 
Daniel J. Thomas, 
Laura T. Fowler, 



Sparrow Smith, 
Martin Kellogg, 
D. C. Stone, 
Ebenezer Knowlton, 
llalph Keeler, 
Volney Rattan, 
Dr. E. J. Schellhouse, 
John Baguall, 



Charles Russell Clarke, 
Dr.F. W. Hatch, 
A. F. Hill, 
Dr. T. H. Rose, 
W. W. Holder, 
William Swinton, 
H. C. Kiune, 
Joseph LeConte, 



LEADING TOPICS. 



■Grammar — Hittell. 
Heat as a Mode of Motion— Minns. 
The Classics in School — Kellogg. 
A Letter from 'Zekiel Stebbins — Minns. 
Physical Culture— Swett. 
Waste in School — Marks. 
Africa and the Nile — Minns. 
Constituti6n and Government — Thomas. 
Juvenile Depravity in Schools — Swett. 
School Libraries — Stone. 
Geography of California — Mai-ks. 
Reverence for Children — Kellogg. 
Teaching as a Profession — Marks. 
Examination of Teachers — Swett 
Modern Languages — Keeler. 
Practical Education— Kellogg. 



Botany — Prof. Wood. 

Co-education of the Sexes — Swett 

Against Medals in Schools— Marks. 

Education in Great Britain— Rattan. 

The Eldest Scholar— Keeler. 

The True Teacher— Swett. 

Arithmetic — Marks. 

Etymology — Hill. 

Pestalozzi — Carlton. 

Marks's "Arithmetic" — Holder. 

Comiiosition — Bagnall. 

Word- Analysis — Swinton. 

Reading — Kinue. 

Female Education — Mrs. Carr. 

Botany for Schools — Bolander. 



HISTORICAL STATISTICAL TABLES. 



215 



XV. HISTORICAL STATISTICAL TABLES. 



18Sl-'76. 



I. EXPENDITURES. 



Yeabs. 


Assessed value of 
property. 


Years. 


Total expenditures. 


Rate per 
$100. 


1850-51 


$57,670,689 


1851-52 


$33,449 


.0679 


1851-2 


49,231,052 


1852-3 


65,645 


.1016 


1852-3 


64,579,375 


1853-4 


275,606 


.2890 


1853-4 


95,335,646 


1854-5 


334,638 


■ .3009 


1854-5 


111,191,630 


1855-6 


305.221 


.2938 


1855-6 


103,887,193 


1856-7 


307,832 


.3240 


1856-7 


95,007,440 


1857-8 


339,914 


.2696 


1857-8 


126,059,461 


1859 


427,003 


.3444 


1858-9 


123,955,877 


1860 


474,263 


.3618 


1859-60 


131,060,279 


1861 


470,113 


.3172 


1860-61 


148,193,540 


1862 


441,228 


.2985 


1861-2 


147.811,617 


1863 


483,407 


.3014 


1862-3 


160,369,071 


1864 


655,198 


.3763 


1863-4 


174,104,955 


1865 


883,116 


.4893 


1864-5 


180,484,949 


1866 


859,229 


.4680 


1865-6 


183,509,161 


1867 


1,163,348 


.5816 


1866-7 


200,764,135 


1868 


1,151,407 


.5255 


1867-8 


'212,205,339 


1869 


1,290,585 


.5418 


1868-9 . . .... 


237,483,175 


1870 


1,529,047 


.5868 


1869-70 


260,563,886 


1871 


1,713,431 


.6572 


1870-71 


277,538,131 


1872 


1,881,333 


.7001 


1871-2 


267,868,126 


1873 


2,113,356 


.3321 


1872-3 


637,-?3-2,823 


1874 


2,111,155 


.3992 


1873-4 


528,747,043 


1875 


2,658,241 


.4347 


1874-5 


611,495,197 









FROM OFFICIAL REPORTS. 

I. Total amount paid'for teachers' salaries $14,463,846 

II. Total amount paid for school-houses and sites. . 3,950,828 

III. Total amount paid for incidentals 3,553,101 

IV. Total amount paid for all purposes 21,967,775 



216 



HISTORICAL STATISTICAL TABLES. 



ADDITIONAL EXPENSES (eSTIKATEd). 

1. State University *$850,00O 

2.. State Normal School 500,000 

3. Salaries of State Superintendents 75,000 

4. Incidentals, j)rinting-, &c., of the State Superin- 

tendent's office 250,000 

5. Salaries of County and City Superintendents, and 

incidentals paid from the general funds 800,000 

Total $2,225,000 

Grand total of expenditures for Public School 

purposes 24,542,775 

2. SCHOOL TAXATION, i852-'75. 



YEARS. 


state School Fund 
aijportioned. 


Raised by county 
aud city taxes. 


tRaised from other 
sources. 


1852 






$2,117 00 


1853 






10 626 00 


1854 


$52,061 00 

63,0(;2 00 

69,961 00 

78,057 00 

53,405 00 

72,319 00 

81,118 00 

81,461 00 

75,412 00 

145,537 00 

132,217 00 

168,828 00 

132,410 00 

268,910 00 

252,603 00 

290.796 00 

360,447 00 

423,853 00 

424,022 00 

430,220 00 

428,418 12 

1,212,252 03 


$157,702 00 
119,128 00 
121,639 00 
148,989 00 
162,870 00 
205,196 00 
230,514 00 
241,861 00 
294,828 00 
328,554 00 
260,842 00 
390,306 00 
470,668 00 
595,718 00 
654,738 00 
847,229 00 
839,756 00 
923,809 00 
1,249,943 00 
1,541,597 00 
1,332,208 82 
1,115,530 06 


42,557 00 


1855 

1856 


39,395 OO 
28,619 OO 


1857 


55,035 00 


1858 


85,167 OO 


1859 

1860 


97,534 OO 
122 858 00 


1861 

1862 

1863 


114,397 OO 

141,806 OO 

68,209 00 


1864 


84,084 00 


1865 


91 181 00 


1866 


79,600 OO 
81,966 OO 
73,986 OO 
66,531 00 
63,411 00 
46,660 00 
032 075 00 


1867 

1868 

1869 


1870 


1871 


1872 


1873 


310 502 00 


1874 


345,316 95 
676 259 64 


1875 






Totals 


$5,298.8(;9 35 


$12,243,625 S8 


$2,960,162 59 



*Exclusive of an endowmeut fixud of $1,500,000. 
tListrict Taxes, Kate Bills, etc. 



HISTORICAL STATISTICAL TABLES. 



217 



3. SCHOOL STATISTICS, i85i-'76. 



Yeaeb. 


Children Listed 
by Census 
Marslials 


Enrolled on 
School Registers 


Average daily 
attendance. 


Number of 
Schools. 


1851 


*5,906 

n7,821 

^19,442 

*20,075 

*26,077 

*30,039 

"35,722 

*40,530 

*48,676 

*57,917 

*68,395 

*71,821 

*78,055 

^86,031 

*95,067 

184,179 

t94,213 

1 104,118 

tll2,743 

tl21,751 

tl30,116 

1 137,351 

tl41,610 

11159,717 

§171,563 


1,846 
3,314 
4,193 
9,746 

17,232 
19,822 
23.519 
26,993 
31,786 
36,5GG 
36,540 
47,588 
50,089 
50,273 
62,227 
65,828 
73,754 
85,808 
91,332 
94,720 
107,593 
120,240 
130,930 


2,020 

4,635 

6,442 

8,495 

9,717 

11,183 

13,364 

14,754 

17,804 

19,262 

19,992 

24,794 

29,592 

33,989 

43,271 

43,681 

49,802 

54,271 

64,286 

65,700 

. 69,461 

72,283 

78,027 




1852 


35 


1853 


111 


1854 


168 


1855 


227 


1856 


321 


1857 


368 


1858 


432 


1859 


523 


1850 


593 


1861 


684 


1852 


- 715 


1863 


754 


1864 


832 


1865 


947 


1866 


913 


1867 


1,083 


1868 


1,228 
1,354 
1,492 
1,550 
1,654 
1,868 
2,005 
2,190 


1869 


1870 


1871 


1872 


1873 


1874 


1875 





* Between four and fifteen years of age. 

t Between five and fifteen years of age. 

t Including children over fifteen years of age. 

II Between five and seventeen years of age. 

§ Including children over seventeen years of age. 



14 



218 



LIST OF COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS. 



XVI. HISTORICAL LIST OF COUNTY SUPERIN- 
TENDENTS. 

From I8S5 to 1876, inclusive. 

Note.— From 1852 to 1854, the County Clerks were ex-officio County Superin- 
tendents. Those marked " are known to have been practical teachers. 



ALAMEDA. 

Eev. A. H. Myers '55, '56 

Rev. W. W. Brier '57, '58 

Dr. Henry Gibbons '59, '60 

Rev. J. D. Strong '61, '62 

Rev. B.N. Seymour. .'63, '64, '65 
Rev. Chas E. Rich . .'66, '66, '68 

* A. L. Fuller '69, '70 

Rev. W. F. B. Lynch. . . .'70, '78 

ALPINE. 

L. S. Greenlow '64, '68 

S. W. Griffith '68, '69 

Joseph Uncapher '70, '71 

*JohnBagnall '72, '73 

R. W. Foster '74 

*Mrs. C. M. Pitcher . . . .'76, '78 

AMADOR. 

E. B. Mclntire '56, '57 

Rev. H. H. Rhees '58, '59 

J. H. Bradley '60 

Samuel Page '61, '63 

*D. Townsend '64, '65 

Rev. S. G.Briggs '66, '74 

W.H. Stowes '74, '78 

BUTTE. 

J.J. Cline '56 

Rev. B. N. Seymour '57 

H.A.Gaston '58, '59 

Rev. J. B. Thomas '60, '61 

S. B. Osbourn '62, ^63 

* Isaac Upham '64, '65 

*C. G.Warren '66, 70 

* Lewis Burnham '70, '71 

* H. T. Batchelder '72, '74 

*S. T. Blake '74, '76 

* Arthur McDermott '76, '78 



CALAVERAS. 

Robert Thompson '57, '63 

Rev. W. C. Mosher '64, '65 

*F. O. Barstow '66, '67 

*C. V. Currier '68, '69 

*J. H. Wells '70, '72 

E. T. Walker '72, '76 

*Chas R. Beale '76, '78 

COLUSA. 

B. M. Hand '57, '60 

Frank Spaulding '61 

Charles Street '62 

John C. Addiugton '63, '67 

*S. W.Britton '68, '69 

*G. W. Howard '70, '71 

E. J. Edwards '72, '73 

*J. E.Putnam '74, '75 

Sam. Houchins '76, '78 

CONTRA COSTA. 

Thomas Ewing '56 

E. H. Cox '57, '58 

A. F. Dyer '59, '60 

D. S. Woodruff '61, '63 

Rev. H. R. Avery '64, '68 

*Alfred Thurber. '68, '72, '76, '78 
*H. S. Raven '72, '74 

DEL NORTE. 

H. W. McMillen '58 

R. S. McLellan.'59, '61, '64, '65, 
'68, '70 

Charles Hinckley '62, '63 

John Mavity '66, '67 

JohnR. Nickel '70, '74 

*Max Lipowitz '74, '78 



LIST OF COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS. 



219 



EL DOBADO. 

H. S. Herrick . . .'55, '56, '59, '60 

J. G. Eustis '57 

H. L. Pease '58 

*M. A. Lynde '60, '64 

*S. A.Peuwell '64, '65 

*C. C. Conkiin '66, '67 

*W. H. Hill '68, '74 

*John P. Munson '74, '78 

FRESNO. 

JE. S. Kincaid '61 

B.. M. Quigley '62, '63 

.S. H.Hill '64, '68 

Dr. S. O. Ellis, Sr '68, '76 

B. H. Bramlet '76, '78 

HUMBOLDT. 

A.J. Heustis '55, '56 

IE. H. Howard '57, '58 

H. H. Seaverns '59, '60 

Hev. W. L. Jones "61, '68 

*J. B. Browu '68, '74 

E. C. Cumming-s '74, '78 

INYO. 

C. M. Joslin '68, '69 

J. W. Symmes '70, '78 

KLAMATH. 

H. P. Hirst '60, '61, '63 

J. H. Twombly '62 

E. Lee '64, '65 

James Gould '68, '69 

H. P. Scott '71, '72 

KERN. 

E. W. Doss '68, '69 

J. H. Cornwall '70, '74 

*L. A. Bearsdsley '74, '78 

LAKE. 

W. K. Mathews '61, '66 

*A. P. McCarty '66, '67 

*Mack Mathews 68, '74 

Eev. Louis Wallace . , . . .'74, '78 

LASSEN. 

"William Young '64, '65 

A. A. Smith '66, '70 

L. M. Grill '70, '71 

L. N. Spaulding '72, '76 

S. A. Doyle '76, '78 



LOS ANGELES. 

Charles Johnson '57, '58 

J. W. Shore '59, '63 

L. J. Rose '64, '65 

Eev. E. Birdsall '66, '67 

H. D. Barrows '68, '69 

*W. M. McFadden '70, '74 

*Geo. H. Peck '74, '75 

*Thos. A. Saxen '76, '78 

MARIN. 

John Simms '57, '58 

John Shore '59, '60 

James Miller '61, '63 

J. W. Zuver '64, '65 

A. Barney '66, '70 

* Samuel Saunders '70, '78 

MARIPOSA. 

A. Reynolds '57, '60 

J. R. McCready '60, '65 

D. W. Washburn '66, '67 

W. C. Hill '68, '69 

J. W. Simmons '70, '71 

David Egenhoff '72, '76 

Richard Kane '76, '78 

MENDOCINO. 

A. L.Brayton '59, '61 

C. R. Budd '62, '63 

J. L. Broaddus '64, '65 

•*C. C. Cummings •66, '70 

T. B. Bond '70, '71 

* J. W. Covington '72, '73 

*J. H. Seaweli '74, '75 

*J. C. Ruddock '76, '77 

MERCED. 

J. W. Robertson '56 

B.F. Howell '57, '58 

F. J. Woodward '58, '61 

R. B. Huey '61, '65 

T. O.Ellis '66, '67 

M. C. Munroe '68, '72 

J. K. Law '72, '73 

B. F. Fowler '74, '78 

MONO. 

M. S. Clark '70 

A. W. Crocker '71, '72 

J. S. Kirkendale '73, '74 

E. R. Miner '75, '76 

*Miss Alice Walker '76, '78 



220 



LIST OF COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS. 



MODOC. 

W. F. Estes '74, '78 

MONTEREY. 

J. H. Gleason '57, '58 

T. S. Koberts '59, '60 

G. AV. Bird '61, '64 

W. M. R. Parker '64, '65 

Thomas Bralee '66, '67 

*T. W. Clay '69, '70 

E. M. Alderman '70, '71 

*S. M. Shearer '72, '73 

R. 0. McCroskey '74, '78 



J. E. Herron '57 

Jas. Corwin '58 

J. M. Hamilton '59, '60 

Rev. A. Higbie '62, '70 

Rev. G.W.Ford '70, '76 

L. Fellows '76, '78 

NEVADA. 

W. B. Ewer '56, '57 

C. T. Overton '58, '60 

J. A. Chittenden '6.0, '63 

M.S. Deal '64, '68 

*E. M. Preston. '68, '69; '76, '78 

* Augustus Morse '70, '71 

*B. J. Watson '72, '73 

* Frank Powers '74, '75 

PLACER. 

T. B. Hotchkiss '56 

P. C. Millette '57, '58 

S. S. Greenwood '59, '60 

* A. H. Goodrich '60, 'GG 

S. R. Case '66, '70 

J. T. Kinkade '70, '76 

Eugene Calvin '76, '78 

PLUMAS. 

M. D. Sawyer '59 

J. C. Church '58, '59 

H. S.Titus '60 '66 

G. W. Meybert '66 '70 

*S. S. Boynton '70 '72 

J. A. Edmon '72, '73 

*W. S. Church '74 '78 



SACRAMENTO. 

Dr. F. W. Hatch, '55, '56; '59-63; 
'66, '67. 

Nelson Slater '57, '58 

*Sparrow Smith '64, '65 

Dr. A. Trafton '68 '72 

*S. H. Jackman '73, '74 

Dr. G. R. Kelley '75, '7& 

*F. L. Landis '76 78 



SAN BENITO. 

*H. L. Morris 



'76 '78 



SAN BERNARDINO. 

H. A. Skinner '55 '57 

R. R. Pearce '58 

Ellis Robbins '59, '60 

A. F. McKinney '60 '64 

W. S. Clark '64, '65; '68, '69 

W. L. Ragsdale '66, '67 

H. C.Brooks '70, '71 

John Brown, Jr '72, '73 

*Henry Goodcel, Jr '74, '75 

C. R. Payne '76 '78 

SAN DIEGO. 

Frank Ames '56, '57 

J. M. Estudillo. . '58-'62; '64, '65 

Geo. Pendleton '62, '6a 

Marcus Schiller '68, '69 

H. H. Dougherty '70, '72; 

B. S. McLafferty '73, '74 

J. H. S. Jamison '75, '76 

*F. N. Pauly '76, '78 

SAN FRANCISCO. 

*John C. Pelton, Co. Sup't. . .'54 
City and Co. Sup't. . . . '55 

CITY AND COUNTY SUPEEINTENDENTS. 

E. A. Theller '5(5 

Henry B. Janes '57, '58 

*James Denman, '59, '60; '68, '69, 
'70; '74, '75 

*Geo. Tait '61, '62, '63, '64 

*John C. Pelton '66, '67 

J. H. Widber '71, '72, '73 

*H. N. Bolander '76, '78 



LIST OF COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS. 



221 



SAN JOAQUIN. 

*L. C. Van Allen. . . .'58, '59, '60 

*Cyrus Collins '60, '64 

*Melville Cottle '64, '70 

*W. R. Leadbetter '70, '74 

*T. O. Crawford '74, '75 

*S. G. S. Dunbar '76, '78 

SAN LUIS OBISPO. 

P. A. Forrester . . '58-' 60; '66-68; 
'70, '74 

Alex. Murray '60, '68 

J. H. Gooch '68, '69 

J. M. Felts '74, '78 

SAN MATEO. 

*W. C. Crook... '62, '66 

Eobt. Greer '66, '67 

*H.N. Nutting '68, '72 

Rev. H. E. Jewet '73, '74 

*C. G.Warren '75, '76 

G. P. Hartley '76, '78 

SANTA BABBAKA. 

A. B. Thompson '64 '70 

Rev. J. C. Hamer '70 '76 

G. E. Thurmond '70 '78 

SANTA CLABA. 

*Freeman Gates '55, '56 

Mathew Mitchell '56, '60 

■S. S. Niles '60, '64 

Wesley Tonner '64, '67 

^J. R. Brierly '68 

*J. H. Braly '68, '69 

*N. Furlong '70, 71 

*Geo. F.Baker '72,73 

*J. G. Kennedy '74, '75 

*E. Rousseau '76, '78 

SANTA CKUZ. 

D. J. Haslam '59, '63 

Rev. P. Y. Cool '64, '65 

*H. P. Stone '66, '67 

*H. E. Makinney '68, '74 

*W. H. Hobbs '74, '78 

SHASTA. 

*Y. N. Chappelle '55 

H. A. Curtin '56 

*Grove K. Godfrey '57, '64 

John Conmy '64, '65 

W. L. Carter '66, '74 

*G. W. Welch '75, '76 

*Mrs. D. M. Coleman. . . .'76, '78 



SIEKRA. 

Rev. W. C. Pond '61, '66 

J. M. Haven '67, '68 

*J. H. Thorpe '68, '72 

A. M. Phalin '72, '78 

SISKIYOU. 

G. F. Price '57, '58 

R. S. McEwan '59, '60 

*Thos. N. Stone '62, '68 

*Grove K. Godfrey '68, '74 

*Wm. Duenkel '74, '78 

SOLANO. 

Rev. S. Woodbridge . . . .'58, '6l 

Rev. J.W. Hines '61, '6^ 

*Geo. W. Simonton '64, '68 

*Milton Wasson '69 

nV. H. Fry '70, '74 

*C. W. Childs '74, '78 

SONOMA. 

*Charles G. Ames '61, '70 

*G. W. Jones '70, '74 

*A. C. McMeans '74, '78 

STANISLAUS. 

A. B. Anderson '61, '64 

G. W. Schell '64, '65 

T. T. Hamlin '68, '72 

James Burney '73, '74 

W. B. Howard '76, '78 

SUTTER. 

C. Wilcoxon '56, '58, '61 

A. S. Long '59, '60 

J. E. Stevens '62, '63 

*N. Furlong '64, '65 

*J. H. Clark '70, '74 

*M. C.Clark '74, '78 

TEHAMA. 

W. L.Bradley '59, '60 

W. H. Bahney '61, '66 

*Geo. F. Morris '67, '68 

G. W.Jeffries '68, '72 

F. A. Vestal '73, '74 

C. D. Woodman '75, '76 

E. S. Campbell '76, '78 



222 



LIST OF COUNTY SUPEEINTENDENTS. 



M. Eueh '57, '60 

Henry Martin '61 

F. Walter '62, '63 

David Gordon '64, '70 

C. W. Smith '70, '71 

Wm. Lovett '72, '73 

H. H. Bragdon '75, '76 

* Mary N. Wadleigh '76, '78 

TUOLUMNE. 

G. S. Evans... '57, '58 

B. A. Mardis '59, '60 

R. E. Gardiner '61 

Charles Pease '62, '63 

* John Graham '64, '65 

J. Spencer 'QG, '67 

W. J. Clark '68, '69 

*C. L. Metzger '70, '71 

*John York, Jr '72, '73 

John Murman '75, '76 

*Rose R. Morgan '76, '77 



O. R. Smith '59, '6(P 

T. O.Ellis '61, '64 

M. S. Merrill '64, '6a 

J.W.Williams '68, '70 

S. G. Creighton '70, '74 

R. P. Merrill '74, '78 

VENTUBA. 

T. S S. Buckman '76, '78 



YOLO. 



Henry Gaddis '57, '65 

*M. A.Woods '66, '68 

R. R. Darby '68, '72 

* G. N. Freeman '72, '76 



Rev. E. B. Walsworth . . . .'57, '61 

W. C. Belcher '62, '66 

*D. C. Stone '67, '68 

* Isaac Upham '69, '70 

Rev. A. A. McAllister. . . .'71, '72 
*Thos. H. Steel '72, '78 



Notes. — Among the County Superintendents distinguished 
for long terms of office, or for educational labors may be 
named : 

Dr. F. W. Hatch, for ten years Superintendent of Sacramenta 
County; a careful and popular officer, whose reports rank among; 
the best. 

Chas. G. Ames, for ten years Superintendent of Sonoma 
County; an accurate and capable school officer. 

Rev. A. Higbie, of Napa County, seven years; and Rev. G. 
W. Ford, six years. 

Grove K. Godfrey, six years in Shasta County and six years 
in Siskiyou. 

Rev. W. C. Pond, Sierra County, five years. 

George W. Simonton, Solano County, four years. 

David Gordon, Trinity County, six years. 

W. C. Belcher, Yuba County, four years; and Rev. E. B» 
Walsworth, same county, four years. 

Rev. W. T. B. Lynch, Alameda County, six years. 



PBESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 223 



PART III. 



PRESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 



I. SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 

T. State Snperiutendent of Public Instruction. 
II. State Board of Education. 

III. State Board of Examiuation. 

IV. County Superintendents. 
V. City Superintendents. 

VI. City Boards of Education. 
• VII. Boards of District School Trustees. 
VIII. County Boards of Examiuation. 
IX. Board of Regents of the State University. 
X. Board of Normal School Trustees. 

I. State Superintendent. — Elected every four years, at the 
Special Judicial Election, in the October following the General 
Election for Governor and other State officers in September. 
Salary, $3,000 a year; traveling expenses, $1,500 a year. Dep- 
uty Superintendent : salary, $1,800 a year. Clerk : salary, 
$1,500. 

II. State Board or Education. — It consists of the Governor, 
State Superintendent, Principal State Normal School, and the 
County Superintendents of San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa 
Clara, San Joaquin, Alameda, and Sonoma. Poiuers. — To issue 
life diplomas; to prescribe rules and regulations and a course 
of study for all schools, except those in incorporated cities; to 
adopt a State series of text-books. 

[The power of adopting text-books repealed by the Legislature 
of 1876.] 

Board required to meet at least four times a year. No salary, 
but traveling expenses allowed. 

III. State Board of Examination. — It consists of the State 
Superintendent, and four professional teachers appointed by 
him. Salary, $200 a year. Poiuers. — To prepare questions for 



224 PEESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

the examination of teachers for county and city examinations; 
to issue State diplomas, valid for six years; first grade cer- 
tificates, valid for four years; second and third grades, valid 
for two years — all on county and city examinations. Also to 
issue certificates on State Normal School diplomas of any State 
Normal School in the United States, and on life diplomas of 
other States. 

IV. County Superintendents. — Elected every two years, at 
the general election. 

Powers. — To apportion school moneys, draw warrants for the 
payments of teachers, conduct examinations of teachers, to visit 
schools, conduct County Institutes, and make a biennial report 
to the State Superintendent. 

Salanj.— From $200 to $1,800 a year; average, 



V. City Superintendents. — Elected, in general, by direct 
vote of the people, for two years. They have the usual powers 
of superintendents in other cities in the United States. 

/Sttknes.— San Francisco, $4,000; Oakland, $2,400; San Jose, 

$1,200. 

VI. City Boards of Education. — Elected by direct vote of 
the people, either at general or sjDecial elections, and consisting 
of from five to twelve members, elected for two years. 

Poivers. — To build schoolhouses, employ teachers, and manage 
school afi'airs generally. 
No salary. 

VII. Boards of District School Trustees. — Elected at 
special school elections, for a term of three years, one trustee 
being elected each year. 

Poivers. — To build schoolhouses, employ teachers, and 
manage local school afi'airs generally. 
No salary. 

VIII. County Boards of Examination.— Consist of County 
Superintendent, and of not less than three professional teachers, 
appointed by him. 

Salary. — Three dollars a day, and traveling expenses. 
Powers.~To hold quarterly examinations, using the questions 
prepared by the State Board of Examination, on the first Wed- 



PRESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 225 

nesday in the months of December, March, June, and Sep- 
tember, and to issue 1st, 2d, and 3d grade county certificates. 

IX. Eegknts of THE State University. — Composed, partly, 
of ex-qfficio members, State ofiicers; partly of members ap- 
pointed by the Governor, for terms of sixteen years; and partly 
■of members elective by the appointed members. 

Foivers. — To manage the affairs of the State University. 
No salary. 

X. Board of State Normal School Trustees.— Consists of 
the Governor and State Superintendent, and five members ap- 
pointed by the Governor, for a term of sixteen years. 

No salary. 



ORGANIZATION OF DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, 1876. 
I. OFFICE OF STATE SUPERINTENDENT. 

OfiBce located at the State Capital, Sacramento. 

State Superintendent Ezra S. Carr. 

Deputy Mrs. E. S. Carr. 

Clerk H. A. Moses. 

II. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. 
Office at Sacramento. 

Gov. William Irwin President. 

Supt. E. S. Carr Secretary. 

Chas H. Allen Prin. State Normal School. 

COUNTY SDPEEINTENDENTS, EX-OFFICIO MEMBEES. 

H. N. Bolander San Francisco. 

T. L. Landis Sacramento. 

W. F. B. Lynch Alameda. 

E. Eousseau Santa Clara. 

A. C. McMeans Sonoma. 

S. B. S. Dunbar San Joaquin. 

ni. STATE BOARD OF EXAMINATION. 

Place of Meeting, Sacramento. 

Supt. E. S. Carr Chairman. 

Chas H. Allen San Jose. 

John Swett San Francisco. 

Miss M. J. Watson Sacramento. 

Mrs. Mary E. Michener Sacramento. 



226 PEESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

IV. COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS. 
Holding oflace from the first Monday in March, 1876, to March, 1878. 

Counties. Names. Pobt-Oppick. 

Alameda Rev. W. F. B. Lynch East Oakland. 

Alpine R. H. Ford Silver Mountain^ 

Amador W. H. Stowers Plymouth. 

Butte Arthur McDermott Oroville. 

Calaveras Charles R. Beal San Andreas. 

Colusa Samuel Houchens Princeton. 

Contra Costa A. Thurber Pacheco. 

Del Norte Max Lipowitz Crescent City.. 

El Dorado John P. Muuson Placerville. 

Fresno R. H. Bramlet Fresno. 

Humboldt E . C. Cummings Rohnerville. 

Inyo JohnW. Symmes Independence, 

Kern L. A. Beurdsley Bakersfield. 

Lake Louis Wallace Lakeport. 

Lassen S. A. Doyle Long Valley. 

Los Angeles Thomas A . Saxon Los Angeles. 

Marin Samuel Saunders San Rafael. 

Mariposa Richard Kane Mariposa. 

Mendocino John C. Ruddock Ukiah. 

Merced B. F. Fowler Merced. 

Modoc W. T. Estes Cedarville. 

Mono Miss Alice Walker Bridgeport. 

Monterey R. C. McCroskey .'Salinas City. 

Napa L. Fellers Napa City. 

Nevada E. M. Preston Nevada City. 

Placer Eugene Calvin Auburn. 

Plumas W. S. Church La Porte. 

Sacramento F. L. Landes Sacramento. 

San Benito H. Z. Morris HoUister. 

San Bernardino Charles R. Paine San Bernardino. 

San Diego F.N. Pauley San Diego. 

San Francisco H.N. Bolander San Francisco. 

San Joaquin S. G. S. Dunbar Stockton. 

San Liiis Obispo J. M. Felts Cambria. 

San Mateo G. P. Hartley Spanishtown. 

Santa Barbara G. E. Thurmond Carpentaria 

Santa Clara E. Rousseau Santa Clara. 

Santa Cruz W. H. Hobbs Soquel. 

Shasta Mrs. D. M. Coleman Shasta. 

Sierra A. M. Phalin Port Wine. 

Siskiyou William Duenkel Yreka. 

Solano C. W. Childs Suisun City. 

Sonoma A. C. McMeans Santa Rosa. 

Stanislaus W. B. Howard Modesto. 

Sutter M. C. Clark Yuba City. 

Tehama E. S. Campbell Red Bluff. 

Trinity Mary N. Wadleigb Junction City. 

Tulare R. P. Merrill Visalia. 

Tuolumne Rose E. Morgan Columbia. 

Ventura F. S. S. Buckman San Buenaventura. 

Yolo H. B. Pendergast Woodland. 

Yuba Th. H. Steele Marysville. 



PRESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 227 

II. SCHOOL REVENUE. 
The school revenue is derived from the following sources : 

I. Interest on the State School Fund. 
II. State School Tax. 

III. County School Tax. 

IV. City School Tax. 

V. District Taxes voted at Special School Elections. 

I. The State School Fund is derived from the proceeds of 
the sales of the 500,000 acres of land, granted by Congress ta 
the State, for the purposes of internal improvement, and set 
apart by the State Constitution as an inviolable school fund, 
and from the sales of the 16th and 36th sections of township 
lands, consolidated into a general State fund. 

It amounts to $1,737,500, invested in six per cent, and seven 
per cent. State bonds. The Endowment Fund of the Sxate Uni- 
versity consists of $1,500,000, yielding an annual revenue of 
about $128,000. 

II. A DIRECT State property tax is required to be levied 
annually, sufficient, with the interest on the State School Fund,, 
to amount to $7 per census child, from 5 to 17 years of age. 
State apportionment, 1875, $1,210,808. 

III. County School Tax. Eate determined by each County 
Board of Supervisors. Maximum rate, not to exceed 50 cents 
on each $100. Minimum rate, not less than $3 per each census 
child. Amount of County Taxes, 1875, $1,115,530. 

IV. City School Tax. The rate is determined, in some 
cases, by the Board of Education, and in others, by the Com- 
mon Councils, or Boards of Supervisors. In San Francisco,, 
the amount required is $35 per child, on the average daily 
attendance for the preceding school year. Amount raised by 
City Tax, 1875, $391,364. 

V. The District Taxes are voted at special school elections, 
generally for building purposes. Maximum rate, $1 on each 
$100. Amount raised in 1875, $315,000. Total School Reve- 
nue, 1875, $3,390,359. Total amount expended for Public 
Schools, from 1850 to 1876 inclusive, $25,000,000. 



228 PEESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

III. GENERAL PROVISIONS OF THE SCHOOL LAW. 
AETICLE X. 

SCHOOLS. 

Section 1662. Who may be admitted to. 

1663. Schools to be graded. 

1664. To be taught in the English language. 

1665. Course of instruction. 

1666. Other studies. 

1667. Instruction in manners, etc. 

1668. Physical exercise, etc. 

1669. Schools for Negro and Indian children. 

1670. How established. 

1671. Governed by same rules as schools for whites. 

1672. Sectarian books and teachings prohibited. 

1673. Duration of daily sessions. * 

Sec. 1662. Every school, unless otherwise provided by special 
statute, must be ojien for the admission of all white children be- 
tween five and twentj'-one years of age, residing in the district; and 
the Board of Trustees or Board of Education have power to admit 
adults, and children not residing in the district, whenever good 
reasons exist therefor. 

Sec. 1663, All schools, unless otherwise provided by special stat- 
ute, must be divided into first, second, and third grade. Each 
County Superintendent must, under instructions from the State Board 
of Education, determine the respective grade or class of schools in 
his county. 

Sec. 1664. All schools must be taught in the English language. 

Sec 1665. Instruction must be given in the following branches — 
in the several grades in which each may be required — viz: reading, 
writing, orthography, arithmetic, geograj^hy, grammar, history of 
the United States, physiology, natural philosophy, natural history, 
elements of form, vocal music, and industrial drawing. 

Sec. 1666. Other studies may be authorized by the State Board of 
Education, or Board of Education of any city, or city and county; 
but no such studies can be pursued to the neglect or exclusion of 
the studies in the preceding section specified. 

Sec 1667. Instruction must be given in all grades of schools, 
and in all classes, during the entire school course, in manners and 
morals. 

Sec 1668. Attention must be given to such physical exercises for 
the pupils, as may be conducive to health and vigor of body, as well 
as mind, and to the ventilation and temperature of school rooms. 

Sec. 1669. The education of children of African descent, and of 
Indian children, must be provided for in separate schools; provided, 
that if the directors or trustees fail to provide such separate schools, 
then such children must be admitted into the schools for white 
children. 

Sec. 1670. Upon the written application of the j)arents or guar- 
dians of such children, to any Board of Trustees or Board of Edu- 
cation, a separate school must be established for the education of 
such children. 



^ 



'jfe^. 



PKESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 229* 

Sec. 1671. The same laws, rules, and regulations, which apply to 
schools for white children, apply to schools for colored children. 

Sec. 1672. No publication of a sectarian, partisan, or demonina- 
tional character, must be used or distributed in any school, or h& 
made a part of any school librai-y ; nor must any sectarian or denomi- 
national doctrine be taught therein. Any school district, town, or 
city, the officers of which knowingly allow any schools to be taught 
in violation of these provisions, forfeits all right to any State or 
county apjDortionment of school moneys; and, upon satisfactory evi- 
dence of such violation, the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
and School Superintendent must withhold both State and county 
apportionments. 

Sec. 1673. No school must be continued in session more than six: 
hours a day; and no pupil under eight years of age must be kept 
in school more than four hours per day. Any violation of the pro- 
visions of this section must be treated in the same manner as a vio- 
lation of the provisions of the preceding section. 

AETICLE XI, 

PUPILS. 

Section 1683. Pupils, how admitted. 

1684. Must submit to regulations. 

1685. Suspension and expulsion of. 

1686. Defacing school property, liabilities for. 

1687. Experienced teachers for beginners. 

Sec. 1683. Pupils must be admitted into the schools in the order 
in which they apply to be registered. 

Sec. 1684. All pupils must comply with the regulations, pursue 
the required course of study, and submit to the authority of the 
teachers of said schools. 

Sec. 1685. Continued willful disobedience, or open defiance of 
the authority of the teacher, constitutes good cause for expulsion 
from school; and habitual profanity and vulgarity, good cause for 
suspension from school. 

Sec. 1686. Any pupil who cuts, defaces, or otherwise injures any 
school house, fences, or outbuildings thereof, is liable to suspension 
or expulsion; and on the complaint of the teacher or trustees, the 
parents or guardians of such pupils shall be liable for all damages. 

Sec. 1687. In cities having graded schools, beginners shall be 
taught, for the first two years, by teachers who have had at least 
four years experience; and such teachers shall rank, in point of 
salary, with those of first grade. V 

■- \ 
ARTICLE XII. ■':'} 

teachers. v. % V^ 

Section 1696. General duties of teachers. 

1697. School month, in relation to salary of teachers, defined. 

1698. Appeal allowed from order removing teacher for incompetency. 

1699. Appeals in other cases. 

1700. No warrant to be drawn jn favor of a teacher unless he performs 

his duties. 

1701. Nor unless he hold certificate, and was employed. 

1702. Teacher's duty in regard to teaching morality, etc. 



"230 PRESENT CONDITION OP THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

Sec. 1696. Every teacher in the public schools must: 

First— Before assuming charge of a school, file his certificate with 
the County Superintendent; 

Second — On taking charge of a school, or on closing a term of 
school, immediately notify the County Superintendent of such 
fact; 

Third — Enforce the course of study, the use of text-books, and 
the rules and regulations prescribed for schools; 

Fourth — Hold pupils to strict account for disorderly conduct on 
the way to and from school, on the play-ground, or during recess; 
suspend, for good cause, any pupil in the school, and report such 
suspension to the Board of Trustees or Education for review. If 
such action is not sustained by them, the teacher may appeal to the 
County Superintendent, whose decision shall be final; 

Fiftii — Keep a State school register; 

Sixth — Make an annual report to the County Superintendent at 
the time, and in the manner, and on the blanks prescribed by the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction. Any school teacher who 
shall end any school term before the close of the school year, shall 
make a report to the County Superintendent, immediately after the 
close of such term; and any teacher who maybe teaching any school 
at the end of the school year, shall, in his or her annual report, 
include all statistics for the entire school year, notwithstanding any 
previous report for a part of the year; 

Seventh — Make such other reports as may be required by the Su- 
perintendent of Public Instruction, County Superintendent, or Board 
of Trustees or Education. 

Sec. 1697, A school month is construed and taken to be twenty 
school days, or four weeks of five school days each. 

Sec. 1698. In case of the dismissal of any teacher before the ex- 
piration of any written contract, entered into between such teacher 
and Board of Trustees, for alleged unfitness, or incompetence, or 
violation of rules, the teacher may appeal to the School Superin- 
tendent; and if the Superintendent decides that the removal was 
made without good cause, the teacher so removed must be reinstated. 

Sec 1699. Any teacher whose salary is withheld may appeal to the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

Sec. 1700. No warrant must be drawn in favor of any teacher, 
unless the officer whose duty it is to draw such warrant is satisfied 
that the teacher has faithfully performed all the duties prescribed in 
section sixteen hundred and ninety-six. 

Sec. 1701. No warrant must be drawn in favor of any teacher, 
unless such teacher is the holder of a proj^er certificate, in force for 
the full time for Avhich the warrant is drawn, nor unless he was em- 
ployed by the Board of Trustees or Education; provided, that 
nothing in this section shall interfere Avith any special school laws 
now in existence for the counties of Trinity, Shasta, or Inyo. 

Sec. 1702. It shall be the duty of all teachers to endeavor to im- 
press on the minds of the pui^ils the principles of morality, truth, 
justice, and patriotism; to teach them to avoid idleness, profanity, 
and falsehood, and to instruct them in the principles of a free gov- 
ernment, and to train them up to a true comjorehensionof the rights, 
■duties, and dignity of American citizenship. 



PRESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 231 

ABTICLE XIII. 

DISTEICT LIBRAKIES. 

Section 1712 . Library Fund, how expended. 

1713. Of what Fund consists. 

1714. Same. 

1715. Control and location of library. 

1716. Who may nse. 

1717. Accountability of trustees for care of library. 

Sec. 1712. The Boards of Trustees and Education must expend 
the Library Fund, together with such moneys as may be added 
thereto by donation, in the purchase of school apparatus, and books 
for a school library. 

Sec. 1713. Except in cities not divided into school districts, the 
Library Fund consists of ten per cent, of the State School Fund, 
annually apportioned to the district, unless ten per cent, exceed 
fifty dollars, in which event it consists of fifty dollars, annually taken 
from the fund so apportioned. 

Sec. 1714. In cities not divided into school districts, the Library 
Fund consists of the sum of fifty dollars for every five hundred 
children between the ages of five and fifteen years, annually taken 
from the State School Fund apportioned to the city. 

Sec. 1715. Libraries are under the control of the Board of Trus- 
tees or Education, and must be kept, when practicable, in the school 
houses. 

Sec. 1716. The library is free to all jiupils of a suitable age, be- 
longing to the school; and any resident of the district may become 
entitled to its privileges by the j^ayment of such a sum of money for 
life membership, or such annual or monthly fee as may be in-e- 
scribed by the trustees. 

Sec. 1717. The trustees shall be held accountable for the proper 
care and preservation of the library, and shall have power to assess 
and collect all fines, jDenalties, and fees of membershii), and to make 
all needful rules and regulations, not provided for by the State 
Board of Education, and not inconsistent therewith; and they shall 
report annually to the County Superintendent, all library statistics 
which may he required by the blanks furnished for the purpose 
by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

IV. CLASSIFICATION OF SCHOOLS. 

I. State University. 
II. State Normal School. 

III. High Schools. 

IV. Sammarj\ 

I. The University of California. — Location, Berkeley, five 
miles from Oakland. Value of buildings, grounds, etc., $500,- 
000. The University embraces seven courses of study, com- 
monly called "Colleges," namely: In Science — Agriculture, 
Mechanics, Engineering, Chemistry, Mining, and Medicine. 
Jn Letters — Classical and Literary. 



232 



PKESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 



It is a free iustitiition, open to younj^ men and young women. 
Tlie number of students in attendance from the beginning is as 
follows : 




II. State Normal School. — Value of buildings, grounds, 
etc., $350,000. Free to both men and women. Number of 
students, 1876, 325. Annual appropriation for support, $23,000. 

III. High Schools. — The principal High Schools in the State 
are as follows: 

Pupils. Teachers. 

1. San Francisco, Girls' High 650 21 

2. San Francisco, Boys' High 250 8 

3. Oakland, Boys' and Girls' High 135 4 

4. Sacramento, Boys' and Girls' High 101 4 

5. Stockton, " " " 65 2 

6. Los Angeles, " " " 57 2 

7. Marysville, " " " 21 1 

8. Santa Clara, " " " 19 1 

9. Vallejo, " " " 77 2 

10. San Jose, " " " 25 1 

11. Petaluma, " " " 52 2 

12. Grass Valley, " " " 20 1 

13. Nevada, " " " 20 1 

14. Santa Cruz, " " " 25 1 

15. Alameda, " " " 15 1 

Total 1532 52 

In addition to the pupils in the schools specially classed as 
"High Schools," there are about 1,800 pupils in "First Grade 
Schools," pursuing an advanced, or partial, high school course. 

SUMMAKY OF CLASSIFICATION, 1875. 

Number enrolled in State University 366 

Number enrolled in State Normal School 350 

Number enrolled in the High Schools, or the Advanced Grade 3,243 

Number enrolled in Grammar, or First Grade Schools 10,177 

Number enrolled in Intermediate, or Second Grade Schools. . .30,820 
Number enrolled in Primary, or Third Grade Schools 79,532 

Total 130,488 







IS ■! 

P 3 

Q 

-^ 3 

W q 



PEESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 233 

V. SUMMARY OF SCHOOL STATISTICS, 1875. 
Population of California (estimated) 800,000. 

Number of cliildren between 5 and 17 171,563 

Number that attended school 116,896 

Average daily attendance in public schools 78,027 

Attendance at private schools 15,000 

CLASSIFICATION. 

1. Attending State University 866 

2. Attending State Normal School 850 

3. Attending high schools, or in " advanced grades" 3,243 

4. Attending grammar schools 16,177 

5. Attending intermediate on second grade school 30,820 

6. Attending primary or third grade schools 79,532 

SCHOOLS AND TEACHEKS. 

Number of school districts „ 1,579 

Number of schools 2,190 

Number of male teachers 1,033 

Number of female teachers 1,660 

Average length of school in months 7.47 

Number of teachers, graduates of some normal school .... 275 

TEACHEKS HOLDING STATE CERTIFICATES. 

1. Holding life diplomas 292 

2. Holding educational diplomas 421 

3. Holding first grade certificates 615 

4. Holding second grade certificates 210 

Total 1,538 

5. Number of graduates of the California State Normal 

School now teaching 240 

8AL.\KIES. 

Average monthly salary paid men $84 93 

Average monthly salary paid women 68 00 

Average annual salary paid men 672 00 

Average annual salary paid women 543 00 

Annual cost per scholar in average daily attendance 28 67 

Annual cost of tuition per scholar in average daily attend- 
ance 21 59 

15 



234 PKESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

FINANCIAL. 
EECEIPT8. 

Balance on band at the beginning of the school year $387,761 11 

Received from State api^ortionments 1,210,808 49 

Received from county aj)portionments 1,115,530 06 

Received from city and district taxes 315, G82 66 

Received from miscellaneous sources (sale of bonds, 

rents, etc.) 360,576 98 

Total receipts from all sources $3,390,359 30 

EXPENDITTTKES FOR SCHOOL PTJEPOSES. 

Amount paid for teachers' salaries 1,810,479 62 

Amount paid for rent, repairs, fuel, and contingent 

expenses 381,806 62 

Amount paid for school libraries 33,962 72 

Amount paid for school apparatus 10,713 02 

Total current expenses $2,236,961 98 

Amount paid for sites, buildings, and school furni- 
ture 421,279 36 

Total expenditures of all kinds $2,658,241 34 



VALUATION OF SCHOOL PEOPERTY. 

Valuation of sites, school houses, and furniture. . . . $4,879,328 39 

Valuation of school libraries 138,564 64 

Valuation of school apparatus 50,785 27 

Total valuation of school property $5,068,678 30 

Total expenditures for school purposes 

up to date $24,542,775 00 



PEESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 



235 



VI. SCHOOL STATISTICS BY COUNTIES, 1875. 



Counties. 


Census of 

Children 5 to 17 

years old. 


Average daily 
attendance. 


Whole Number 
Enrolled. 


No. of 
Teachers, 


Alameda 


9,330 
85 
2,381 
3,484 
2,210 
2,346 
3,047 

418 
2,335 
1,398 
2,803 

397 

997 
1,369 

667 
7,787 
1,647 

930 
2,808 
1,171 

840 

112 
3,286 
2,822 
4,705 
2,519 

834 
6,482 
1,456 
1,971 
1,834 
41,021 
5,212 
2,012 
2,340 
2,282 
8,410 
3,212 
1,517 
1,115 
1,705 
4,63o 
7,003 
1,909 
1,549 
1,425 

642 
2,837 
1,872 
1,122 
2,566 
2,609 


4,458 

42 

1,382 

1,537 

1,054 

963 

1,357 

232 

1,248 

457 

1,248 

159 

328 

637 

390 

2,049 

642 

360 

1,243 

527 

441 

57 

1,356 

1,251 

2,356 

1,338 

431 

2,695 

592 

675 

440 

20,830 

2,897 

679 

815 

608 

3,480 

1,367 

694 

649 

906 

2,229 

3,437 

1,016 

710 

603 

316 

956 

1,058 

388 

1,273 

1,171 


6,261 
69 
2,069 
2,642 
1,702 
1,787 
2,439 

387 
1,995 

939 
2,320 

283 

543 
1,210 

544 
4,237 
1,073 

707 
2,399 
1,119 

604 

102 
2,415 
2,111 
3,774 
2,262 

738 
4,785 
1,037 
1,375 

8J8 
32,075 
5,620 
1,134 
1,439 
1,229 
5,786 
2,426 
1,205 

969 
1,387 
3,594 
5,900 
1,813 
1,423 
1,107 

443 
1,992 
1,577 

842 
2,156 
2,067 


121 


Alpine 


4 


Amador 

Butte 


39 

62 


Calaveras 


38 


Colusa 


43 


Contra Costa 


69 


Del Norte 


10 


El Dorado 


44 


Fresno 


30 


Humboldt 


50 


Inyo 


9 


Kern 


14 


Lake 


27 


Lassen 

Los Angeles 


14 

72 


Marin 


28 


Mariposa 

Mendocino 

Merced ,. 

Modoc 


16 
52 

26 
24 


Mono 


5 


Monterey 


44 


Napa 


78 


Nevada 


63 




52 


Plumas 


23 


Sacramento 


106 


San Benito 


22 


San Bernardino 


22 


San Diego 


25 


San Francisco 


507 


San Joaquin 


93 


San Luis Obispo 


26 


San Mateo 


37 


Santa Barbara 


22 


Santa Clara 


105 


Santa Cruz 


47 


Shasta 


33 


Sierra 


25 


Siskiyou 


39 


Solano 


78 


Sonoma 

Stanislaus 


132 
46 


Sutter 


38 


Tehama 


29 


Trinity 


17 


Tulare 


42 


Tuolumne 


28 


Ventura 


16 


Yolo 


53 


Yuba 


48 






Totals 


171,563 


78,027 


130,930 


■ 2,693 







236 PEESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

VII. RESUME OF THE CONDITION OF THE SCHOOLS, 

1. Buildings. — In general, the school houses are comfortable, 
are furnished with modern styles of desks, and fairly supplied 
with maps, charts, and simple school apparatus. 

2. Length of School. — The average length of school is 7| 
months in the year, an average exceeded by only two or three 
States in the Union. There were only 34 schools in which the 
length of term was less than 6 months. In nearly 800 districts 
the length of term exceeded 8 months. The provision in mak- 
ing the county apportionment by which the minimum amount 
for each school, however small, is $500, has extended the 
means of education to the most remote settlements. 

3. Teachers. — Of the 2800 teachers, 240, or nearly one tenth, 
are graduates of the California State Normal School. There 
are 2U2 holders of life diplomas; that is, about one tenth, Avho 
may be ranked as " professionals." There are about 400 
holders of educational diplomas who have had at least 5 j^ears' 
experience. In all, about one third of the teachers may be 
considered skilled in their profession, the remaining two 
thirds being mainly made up of " raw recruits." 

4. Instruction. — There is a good course of study laid out by 
the State Board of Education; but, of course, this is carried 
out in the country districts to a very limited extent only. In a 
majority of the schools, the teaching consists of text-book 
recitations, with little or no instruction by the teacher. 

5. Libraries. — Each school is supplied with a small library, 
purchased by an annual approj^riation of 10 per cent, of the 
State appropriation, not to exceed $50 yearly. The amount 
expended last year was about $50,000. 

The libraries constitute one of the best features of the 
system. 

6. Secular Instruction. — With a few unimportant exceptions, 
the schools are purely secular. The provisions of the State 
law are generally interpreted to exclude the reading of the 
Bible and prayer. In the State University, in the schools of 



PEESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 237 

San Francisco, Oakland, and most other cities, and in most of 
the country districts, there are no religious exercises whatever. 
The State Normal School is the only notable exception; 
there, the school is opened with prayer and the reading of 
the Bible. 

7. Defects. — There are two weak points in the system. 1. 
The short terms of school officers. 2. The frequent change 
of teachers. 

Everywhere, except in San Francisco, the New England 
system of electing teachers annually is in full force and efiect. 
Hence, a majority of the teachers are " circuit teachers." 

The frequent change of school officers renders uniform and 
steady progress out of the question. 

The most notable defect in the instruction given in the 
schools is the lack of thorough mental training, the Avork of the 
pupils consisting largely in memorizing text-book recitations. 

The reforms of the next century will consist in the employ- 
ment of skilled teachers, in common sense methods of teach- 
ing, and in the adaptation of courses of study to industrial 
pursuits. 

8. Expenses. — The total amount expended for school pur- 
poses, during a quarter of a century, is, in round numbers, 
twenty-five millions of dollars. This is the best investment the 
State has ever made. Had fifty millions been expended, the 
State to-day would be the richer for it. Men, not money, make 
the true wealth of a nation. 

9. What we Need. — The following extract from an address by 
Hon. Ezra S. Carr, before the State Agricultural Society, Sep- 
teml^er, 1875, outlines a want to be supplied during the next 
century : 

CHILD CULTURE. 

Ovir progress during the last six years is due to our increased 
facilities of travel and transportation. So many are now busy with 
plans for increasing immigration, that it may be useful to have one 
voice directing the public mind to the solution of a more important 
question, viz. : how to grow a crop of sound-bodied, right-minded, 
clean-hearted children, who will " take to work " as naturally and 
kindly as a duck takes to water. I hold that the end of the crop is 
the eater; the end of labor the betterment of the laborer; and that 
human improvement is as legitimate a subject for discussion in agri- 



238 PRESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

cultural societies as that of colts or cbickens. We have hitherto left 
this subject pretty much to the doctors — doctors of the body and of 
the soul — whose occupation will be gone when man truly reflects the 
Divine image. And although we need the help of these doctors still 
in the work of human improvement, and although we are immensely 
indebted to them for what has already been accomplished, I think it 
is better to pay them for the ounce of prevention than for the pound 
of cure. Nature herself protests when a lean, dwarfed apology for a 
man calls himself master of the noble brute creatures, which have be- 
come more than half human in their intelligence and beaut}', through 
careful selections, breeding, and nurture. An organization like this, 
having for its object the improvement of the farmer, as well as the 
farm, will not love a horse less because it loves a child more. The 
interests of agriculture are bound up with those of education, espe- 
cially in that modern form of it which is denominated " technical." 
The farmer's children are " the best working stock on the farm;" 
and the value of skill, intelligence, and good character applied there 
is more and more highly appreciated. This is the lowest, most ma- 
terial view of the subject, but it is one that the political economist 
will not overlook. Do our schools, do any of them, meet the great 
demands of agricultural and mechanical industry? Hundreds of the 
best and most progressive teachers say they do not; thousands and 
tens of thousands of anxious parents say they do not. 

In a recent meeting of a State agricultural society in the East, it 
was said: " AVhat we want is not mere culture, but culture applied, 
culture realized, culture put at work, and demonstrating, day by day, 
its uses." The masses of our people have little time to pursue 
branches of study which have not some direct bearing ui^on their 
callings or avocations. Aside from the elements, which all should 
receive, the importance of special knowledge, bearing upon special 
work, is paramount. Our system should be changed, so that from 
the highest classes in the country schools to the University, by un- 
broken gradations of the most liberal training in the acquisition of 
knowledge and skill, men and women should be fitted worthily to 
perform their appointed service in the industrial state. 

It is fifteen years since the Massachusetts State Board of Agricult- 
ure asked the legislature for the passage of an act authorizing, as 
the first step in furnishing an agricultural education to the people — 

First — " The engrafting ujjon her common school education the 
study of elementary geology, animal and vegetable physiology, and 
botany; to be taught in the usual form, by manuals, with suitable 
illustrations, simple and inexpensive; so prepared that it will not 
altogether depend upon the knowledge of the instructor to make 
them of use to the learner. With a slight change in their studies, 
our children would learn something which would every day become 
more deeply implanted in their minds by what they see going on 
around them." " These studies," they said, " cannot be commenced 
too early, for they are the germs of all future development, the 
vitality of which is never lost; they must be planted early if it is 
hoped to reach a full harvest." 

Second — They asked for an agricultural school with a farm attached 
to it, where the practice of agriculture in its several departments, 



PEESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 239 

and the best methods of farm management could be practically 
learned. The committee, among whom I find the names of Marshal 
P. Wilder and George B. Loring, said: "If a person, who had the 
ability to perform whatever he undertook, should offer to the people 
of this commonwealth a secret, by which in twenty years the pro- 
ductive value of the lauds throughout the whole State would be 
doubled, what would that secret be worth? The diffusion of general 
agricultural education would accomplish that object; nay, go far 
beyond it, in less time than has been named, and at an expense 
that would be trifling in proportion to the benefits that would flow 
from it." 

Other States have taken similar action. The farmers of the West 
have recommended a revision of the school course, with this object 
in view. 

In Illinois, an able defender of industrial education said: "We 
take the child out of God's natural industrial university and send 
bim to school, where, at best, only a fraction of his entire manhood 
can be properl}' developed; and, after all, we do not fit pupils for 
actual life, even in those elemental studies after forty weeks' school 
per annum, as well as they were fitted in ten weeks, half a century 
ago. One prime cause of this is, that the bookmakers and publicihers 
have assumed about as absolute control of our public schools as the 
politicians have of our post-offices. Rich publishing houses have 
offered as high as $70,000 for the introduction of a single text-book 
into a State. And yet not one of those books teaches us the things 
which it is our chief interest to know, and our protracted school 
drill leaves little time for anything else. " 

"I wish," says Professor Turner, "to make room for some of the 
subjects which underlie the industrial arts, botany, entomology, and 
zoology, for instance. The State of Illinois spends, say $12,000,000 
a year on her public schools, and loses from $10,000,000 to $20,000,- 

000 from obnoxious insects. Now, I would have every one of these 
insects, about a hundred in all, with pins in their backs, put up in 
a show-case in every public school in the State; and I would have 
every child know them as well as he knows his father's cows and 
horses; instead of having one or two lone men looking after them, 

1 would turn millions of intelligent young ej'es upon them, and 
thus prepare for their extermination. I would have this, whether 
the child knew there was such a word as * en-tom-ol-o-gy ' or not ! 

" The hard-working American people want to know something 
about our continent — our life-work, our bodies, and bones, and 
souls, our duties and destinies in the great republic in which we 
live. 

" I look upon the agricultural classes to lift us out of this monkey- 
dom of precedent, into the true freedom of American citizenship. 
All that is needed is that every man should quietly set about im- 
proving his own school, in his own district, as fast and as fully as 
he can." 

I shall make no apology for quoting these educational authorities. 
I warn all those classes who do not believe in industrial education, 
that Broderick's words are fast coming to be true, that — 



240 PRESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 



" WOKKING-MEN WILL RULE THIS NATION. 

The State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Connecticut, 
Mr. Northrop (and he has been saying- these things from that office 
a good many years), says: "Every child's education is deficient who 
has not learned to work at some useful form of industry. Labor 
aids in disciplining the intellect, and energizing the character. 
Esjiecially does farm work task and test the mind, leading a boy to 
plan and contrive to adapt means to ends. With all our improved 
gymnastics, none is better than manual labor, cheerfully and intelli- 
gently performed, especially farm work. The ambition for easier 
lives, and more genteel employments, and the silly but common no- 
tion that labor is menial, that the tools of the trades and the farma 
are badges of servility, have greatly lessened ajiprenticeships, and 
ought to be refuted in our common schools. 

"Our youth should there be taught the dignity and necessity of 
labor, and its vital relations to all human excellence and progress, 
the evils of indolence, the absurdity of the present fashion for city 
life, and the wide-spread aversion to manual labor. A practical 
knowledge of some industrial pursuit is an imi:)ortant element in 
intellectual culture." 

I fully indorse these sentiments. "Whatever you would have ap- 
pear in a nation's life must be put into its schools," is a Prussian 
motto, and we put the same idea into section 1702 of our code, 
which makes it "the duty of teachers to instruct pupils to avoid 
idleness, and to train them to a comprehension of the rights, duties, 
and dignity of American citizenship." But Prussia enforces her 
principles in the most universal system of "real," or technical 
schools, which turn out able young farmers, carpenters, black- 
smiths, and housekeepers, and nurses, while with us it all ends in an 
admonition to "avoid idleness." 

The State must go further than this; it must fit its children for 
their places in the industrial ranks. The nation has two technical 
schools— one for training of navy, the other of army, officers. Each 
State has one for the training of teachers, and a few have real train- 
ing schools or colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts. If 
these are what they should be, they will do for those pursuits what 
West Point and Annapolis do for the army and navy, viz. : make 
men who are proud of their business. I wish some of the kid glove 
gentry who think the base-ball club and the boating club furnishes 
a more dignified employment for the muscles of our young men 
than manual labor, could have been with me at the annual examina- 
tion of one of the nation's training schools, where high born and low 
born, without distinction of nationality or religion, learn — what? 
To scrub a deck, to furl a sail, to use every tool in the carjDenter's 
shop, in the blacksmith's shop, to make and to mend everything 
that belongs to a ship, to be considerate, gentlemanly, orderly, to 
command themselves and others, to obey, to love their countiy's 
flag, and to die for it without a murmur, to go down with the ship 
if need be — all this while they learn everything that is required in 
literature and science for an education of the tii'st class. 

And must one be a soldier, or a sailor, to be thus furnished for 



PKESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 241 

his country's service, for his own service in the industrial state ? 
Shall a man be trained in all manliness to walk the quarter deck, 
worthy of all obedience because he understands what he requires, 
and has himself performed, not once, but a thousand times, all that 
he exacts from subordinates; and may he not have an equal train- 
ing for the post of foreman in a mechanic's shop, for the manage- 
ment of his own broad acres, and the laborers he requires to culti- 
vate them ? Do you suppose they would put a man in charge of 
the Naval Academy, or tolerate a single professor in West Point, 
who thought practical education in war and navigation would prove 
" a failure" — was, at best, a doubtful experiment? No; that isn't 
the way they manage. Those old admirals and army officers are 
seamen and soldiers through and through, from boots to buttons; 
they believe in their business. The men who lead in industrial 
education must believe in it also. 

The kind of education w^anted to-day is not that which has passed 
current, and which has proved a dead failure in making a generation 
of nobler youth, stronger in body, clearer in mind, and firmer in 
conscience, than the half-schooled frontier gave us a hundred years 
ago. Don't take this on my authority, but look through the Gov- 
ernors' messages and State Superintendents' reports. Why, only 
last year the Education Committee of the Massachusetts Legislature 
said: " The public school system of Massachusetts fails to meet the 
demands of modern civilization." Why and how? Civilization 
now demands skilled, intelligent labor; and, as Scott Eussell says, 
"Occupations which require no skill, but only brute force, Avill 
necessarily be vacated by human hands." The substitution of 
steam culture for hand labor has thrown thousands of English 
workmen out of employment. 

" Society, in the march of improvement, is as certain to do with- 
out the unskilled, the unintelligent, and uneducated, as it is to do 
without wild plants and animals. Nor will the laws be unjust 
which forbid those who cannot create their food to subsist on the 
labor of others." 

Governor Hartranf t, of Pennsylvania, calls attention to the scarcity 
of skilled labor in that State, and says, that although $10,000,000 
are annually expended for education, none of the children who 
complete their terms in the public schools have any special fitness 
for trade, and few become artisans. He recommends schools where 
boys can be instructed in trades, and urges compulsory education. 
I might amplify this testimony almost indefinitely, but I turn to 
other aspects of the question. 

I am not one of those who think a thing must be good because 
it is baldheaded with antiquity. Education is essentially conserva- 
tive. You cannot make a move in the way of improvement with- 
out disturbing somebody, and we shall have to disturb a good 
many people sitting in comfortable chairs before we get our educa- 
tional stream to turning mills and grinding corn. 

While I do not think that bodily labor is specially desirable for 
its own sake, I think any scheme which leaves physical education 
out of the account is radically defective. If you can have this with 
training in useful arts, so much the better, but have it we must. 



242 PEESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

There was a training in those primitive New England times when a 
fellow had to lie down to his Lindley Murray before a fire of pine 
knots, after milking the cows, cutting the wood, and doing the 
"chores;" when the girl added the daily skein to the festoons of 
yarn for the family clothing, which is hard to get in these days. 
As soon as a child was old enough to pick up a basket of chips, 
it became an element in the productive wealth of the home. Surely 
it was none the worse for it to be taught by the statutes of law 
and filial duty that service was due for the care and support of its 
helpless years. These views may seem sordid, but the looseness 
with which children grow up to think their parents and the rest of 
the world owe them a living is filling our streets with hoodlums 
and with animated fashion plates, ready to be blown away by the 
first ill wind of temptation. What is a hoodlum? A boy gone to 
waste, rotten before he is ripe, because society does not know 
enough to preserve and economize him. 

The education required by a people is not a fixed quantity, either 
in kind or degree, and the condition and circumstances of laboring 
men of every class have greatly changed since the idea of public edu- 
cation first dawned. Why, do you know that the experiment is 
historically so recent that a good many countries have not had time 
to make it ? 

The history of education fully explains why it is not more practi- 
cal. Colleges and seminaries grew up out of the monasteries, which, 
for a long time, treasured all the learning there was in the world. 
Learning was a monopoly; first of the priest, then of priests and the 
nobles, then of these and the judges, and finally, and not without 
hard squeezing, the leech or doctor got into this good comj^any, and 
then came the printed Bible to carry the art of reading wherever 
religious zeal could take it. There was nothing but literature for 
education to use; it covered the whole field, except mathematics. 
Columbus invented geography, and Galileo and Copernicus astron- 
omy, long after the great European universities were founded. In 
England, where our college system came from, the aristocratic 
classes only were benefited by it, and it suited them very well. 
And when the common school got started, it simply took a few of 
the first leaves out of the college book. It is not so very long since 
men learned to read and sx^ell in the Universities of Oxford and 
Cambridge. It took several centuries of human progress to bring 
rulers to consent that common folks should learn the alphabet; and, 
again, to get permission for women to tamper with the dangerous 
thing. It took a good while to get a spinning-jenny, and a power 
wheel, and a steam plow; and the education of the Oxford time 
don't suit the spinning-jenny age, as England has learned to her 
cost. 

Until about the time of the gold discovery in California, England 
was domineering over the rest of Europe, through her commercial 
supremacy, and her command of the supi^lies of raw materials, which 
enabled her to take the lead in manufactures. These advantages she 
was likely to retain. But France and Germany, by the most mag- 
nificent provisions for technical schools, set themselves to compete 
with her on her own ground of manufactures, and not only dis- 



PEESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 243 

tancecl her completely, but almost drove her from the field. The 
Exposition of '67 proved that Germany could make better steel, and 
France better locomotives; " that England was beaten, not only on 
some points, but, by some nation, on nearly all the points on which 
she had prided herself." The English government then sent eighty 
skilled workmen over to the Continent, to find out the causes of 
defeat. The unanimous reply was: " Their industrial education has 
caiised it." 

Lord Stanley addressed the most careful inquiries to all the foreign 
Consuls in France, Prussia, Saxony, Switzerland, Belgium, and 
got the same answer, "industrial education." And lately there 
comes a plan from England for a national system of industrial in- 
struction for the whole people, beginning in primary schools, and 
ending in a great " central technical university" for training pro- 
fessors and teachers of institutions of lower rank, devoted to raising 
the standard of industrial well-being. Instead of believing that 
money is the root of evil, the Englishman believes it to be the root 
of industry, and so of all good, and this change in the direction of 
popular education is due to the lesson the English nation received 
at Paris and Vienna. 

The great natural advantages which we possess will not give us 
industrial supremacy, unless we follow these examples. The " 7n- 
iernational Magazine " emphasizes our duty and our opportunity in 
strong language: "With an agricultural wealth to which no limit 
can be assigned, with mineral riches everywhere bursting through 
the surface, with water power which no mills can exhaust; not to 
advance, not to rival the skilled industry of Europe, is not a loss 
merely, it is a crime." The California wheat-grower and wool- 
grower must compete in the Liverpool market with the wheat and 
wool of the world. Competition, in every branch of industry, has 
become world-wide, and unless the American farmer and manufac- 
turer does his best, he is sure to take the lower place in the world's 
market. 

With gold and silver mines that supply all nations, with forests 
shading our hillsides, with flocks, and vineyards, and great valleys 
teeming with their abundant harvests, we cannot be rich or great, 
unless we can compete in the enlightened employment of these 
natural means and forces. The experience of all Europe teaches, 
"Industrial supremacy is the prize of industrial education." 

Let us lay the foundation of this supremacy in 

OUR PEIMAKT SCHOOLS. 

Carry it forward by a well-devised system of secondary technical 
schools, and complete it in a Universitj^ where prominence is given 
to different branches of learning, according to the directness and 
value of these as applied to the occupations and pursuits of our 
people. 

Perhaps there was never a time when the relations of the Gov- 
ernment to education need to be discussed so thoroughly, and yet so 
temperately. That universal intelligence is the only guarantee of 
universal liberty, is one of the fundamental ideas of the American's 
political faith; but the right and duty of the State to educate has 
been better stated in monarchical Germany than in republican 



244 PRESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

America. The great Ficlite said: "The end of the State is not only 
to live, but to live nobly." And the clearest of writers upon the phi- 
losophy of education, Karl Eosencrauz, said: "The idea that the 
Government has the right to oversee the school, lies in the very idea 
of the State, which is authorized and under obligations to secure the 
education of citizens, and cannot leave their fashioning to chance. 
The sej)aratiou of the school from the State would be the destruc- 
tion of the school." 

With us it would be the destruction of the State; for here the di- 
versity of the materials which forzn the State, requires the uuifying 
influence of a broad and comprehensive sj'stem of public education. 

The work of the State in education may be divided into three sec- 
tions. The first is elementary and general (and should be universal 
and free), making every child familiar with reading, writing, draw- 
ing or picture writing, with elementary arithmetic and natural his- 
tory, and with the geography and history of his own State and 
country. In the second stage, separation and specialization should 
begin, which will necessarily grow and perfect its(?lf Avith the growth 
of culture, and the more perfect organization of the forces of civili- 
zation. We now specialize only in regard to classes of unfortunates, 
the deaf, dumb, blind, etc.; by and by we can sj)ecialize as to uses, 
and make our countr}-- schools more preparatory to agriculture, hor- 
ticulture, and the like; while our city schools, by vacation classes, 
half-time schools, and other agencies, at first, and afterwards by 
special schools, render the same service to the mechanic and manu- 
facturing arts. The certainties of science are swiftly taking the 
place of the hap-hazard pursuit of those arts, and a great part of 
secondary instruction should be in the simpler applications of scien- 
tific jDrinciples. 

In the third, or University stage of education, the one-sidedness 
of a particular or strictly technological training is rounded off by a 
survey of the relations and value of each specialty to others, without 
losing sight of a specific individual purpose. The University is as 
necessary a j)art of public instruction as the elementary or technical 
school, and should be the crown and complement of these. Below 
this point the States say every child sJiaU be furnished with the 
means for the rational development of his physical, moral, and in- 
tellectual powers; to this, instruction should be added which will 
enable the child to apply those powers in obtaining a livelihood; 
while at the gates of the University the State confers a privilege, 
and says to the youth: You may go up higher, and contend for the 
prizes of thought and activity. The University^ says: Here you shall 
find the natural sciences carried up"into the science of nature; that 
the phenomena of society, of industry, of trade, of finance, of poli- 
tics, are subject to fixed laws. The University is an organic ency- 
clopedic representation of all the sciences, with their connections 
and relations. And this is equally true of the arts, architecture, 
music, painting, the drama — are like the sciences, bound together in 
a Uiiiversitas Ai'cium. 

While this is the true conception of a University, and should not 
be lost sight of in laying the foundations of an institution for all time, 
it is not immediately practical or adax)ted to the wants of young and 



PKESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 245 

growing States. The reason of this is, that the lower stages of public 
education are yet imperfect and unorganized. To expect to have a 
great University without a good proportion of high schools, and be- 
fore we have a single technical school, seems to me preposterous. 
We may have students crowding into our University to get what 
other colleges give — liberal literary or scientific education — without 
getting a step nearer the ideal University, while numbers of the stu- 
dents of older colleges are found among us seeking for second-rate 
clerkships, in threadbare clothes; but when we get the feeders to our 
University in running order, we shall find its utmost usefulness 
realized in the production of educated power instead of 

EDUCATED HELPLESSNESS. 

" We thank you," said the Iroquois Chief (in the year 1774) to 
the Government of Virginia, which had offered to educate some of 
their young men; " we have already had experience of your edu- 
cation, and some whom you have educated in all your sciences 
come back to us bad runners, ignorant of woodcraft, unable to trap 
a deer, snare a fish, to build a wigwam; we cannot accept your 
offer, though we appreciate your good will, but we will take a few 
of your sons and make men of them." 

Something like this the people have been saying to the Universi- 
ties founded upon the munificence of the State and nation, not 
because they do not apjireciate education, but because they do. 
They know that it costs more to hang a man, to board and lodge 
a man at San Quentin, than it would to teach him the duties and 
responsibilities of American citizenship, and how to get an honest 
living; that it costs far more to maintain a system of demagogy than 
of pedagogy! They know that where five agricultural scientists 
could obtain employment, five thousand skillful, intelligent farmers 
are needed to-day in our own State. The friends of the so-called 
higher education should be willing to see the University filling the 
present need of technical training in agriculture and the arts, mak- 
ing practical workers, as well as thinkers, of its students, thus sup- 
plying the means of its ideal perfection. 

The technical school in which we are most directly interested, is 
that which gives us teachers. Without the right kind of teachers, 
no reform is possible. The one business which it should be the 
special concern of the State to maintain in honor, which should 
be kept free from political or sectarian influences, which should be 
entered into with zeal and consecrated ability, and never as a make- 
shift — is education. The educator, whether of the school or the 
press, stands at the point of power, and holds the highest office in 
the social economy. 

The work of organizing the national education is now claiming 
the attention of scholars and patriots. Such an organization, in its 
higher and low^er stages, will be impartial in its bearings upon in- 
tellect and industry, impartial as to sex, making a boy's training 
preparatory to a man's work, and girl's to a woman's, wife's, 
mother's work, and in both will recognize the intrinsic dignity of 
self-support. 

The graduate of the National School of Pedagogy, or Normal 



246 PBESENT CONDITION OF THE SCHOOL SCHOOL. 

School, will have the same relation to the Government that the 
graduate of West Point or of the Naval Academy has, and thus step 
by step the hitherto unrewarded and despised profession of teach- 
ing shall be exalted and ennobled. Do I believe in this good time 
coming ? Most assuredly I do. The time has already come when 
war is no longer a necessity, and that nation is the most civilized 
which can most easily dispense with it. The reign of words, too, 
is almost over; dogmas, religious or political, no longer fetter the 
nations; thought is free as air. Literature must take the back seat; 
while the arts, leading science, make the circuit of the world. Be- 
tween the standing armies of soldiers, which tell how imperfect still 
is human government, and the sitting armies of sophists, whose 
mission it is to perpetuate existing evils, another great army is 
being drilled — the army of labor — in which we shall find the most 
practical philosophy, the broadest intelligence, and the most Chris- 
tian patriotism. 

Little more than two hundred years ago. Sir "William Berkeley, 
Governor of Virginia, said: "Thank God, there are no fi-ee schools 
nor printing presses here, and I hope there will be none for an 
hundred years, for learning has brought heresy and sects into the 
world, and printing has divulged these and other libels." The 
ghost of Sir William flits in a few remote corners of our land, but 
the spirit of modern inquiry forbids that it shall be materialized. 
With conscious pride, the farmers and laboring men of America 
are building a commonwealth whose spirit shall be jjeace on earth 
and good will to man; whose weapon, suifrage; whose conservatism, 
education; whose objects are freedom, order, and economy within 
our own boundaries, and an eternal brotherhood with those who 
are our wider neighbors. 



ERRATA. 



Page 20, Sec. 8, read "approved May 3, 1852," instead of "approved May 3, 
1862." 
Page 24, See. 15, read " 1855," instead of "1856." 
Page 25, Sec. 17, read "seventh," instead of "seventeenth." 

OMISSION. 
In the section of legislation, 1874, on page 65, no mention is made of the Com" 
piilsory Education Bill passed during that year; but as the law has proved a dead 
letter, the omission ia of little consequence. 



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